combatant

The petitioners were eight men born in Germany who had lived in the United States before returning to Germany between 1933 and 1941. After the declaration of war, they received training at a sabotage school near Berlin and then traveled to occupied France, where four boarded one German submarine and four boarded another. On or about June 13, 1942, the first group landed at Amagansett Beach on Long Island, New York, during darkness while wearing German Marine Infantry uniforms or parts of uniforms. They immediately buried the uniforms along with explosives, fuses, and incendiary devices and proceeded in civilian dress to New York City. On or about June 17, 1942, the second group landed at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, in similar fashion, burying their caps and equipment before traveling in civilian dress to Jacksonville and other points. All eight were arrested in New York or Chicago by FBI agents. They had been instructed by an officer of the German High Command to destroy war industries and facilities in the United States, had been paid by the German government during training, and possessed substantial sums of United States currency when captured. On July 2, 1942, the President issued an order appointing a Military Commission to try the petitioners for offenses against the law of war and the Articles of War. On the same day he issued a proclamation declaring that persons who entered the United States through coastal defenses in time of war to commit sabotage would be subject to the law of war and denied access to civil courts. On July 3, 1942, charges were preferred alleging violation of the law of war, violation of Articles 81 and 82 of the Articles of War, and conspiracy. The Commission convened on July 8, 1942, heard evidence, and on July 27 found all petitioners guilty and sentenced them to death. The President approved the findings and sentences on July 31 but commuted one to life imprisonment. The petitioners applied to the District Court for the District of Columbia for leave to file habeas corpus petitions, which were denied. They then sought the same relief in the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari before judgment from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and heard argument at a special term on July 29 and 30, 1942. The facts recited above were stipulated by counsel.

In 1953 the Textile Workers Union of America entered into a collective bargaining agreement with Lincoln Mills of Alabama. The agreement was to run for one year and from year to year thereafter unless terminated on specified notices. It contained a no-strike clause and established a multi-step grievance procedure whose final step, available to either party, was arbitration. Several grievances concerning work loads and work assignments arose under the agreement. The union processed the grievances through every step of the contractual procedure, after which the employer denied them. The union then requested arbitration, but the employer refused. The union filed suit in federal district court seeking an order compelling the employer to arbitrate the grievances. The district court held that it possessed jurisdiction and directed the employer to comply with the arbitration provisions of the agreement. On appeal the Court of Appeals reversed by a divided vote, concluding that the district court lacked authority under either federal or state law to grant the requested relief. The Supreme Court granted certiorari. After the Court of Appeals decision but before oral argument, Lincoln Mills terminated its operations, ceased all work at the mill in March 1957, and contracted to sell its mill properties. Some of the grievances sought back pay for increased workloads, and the collective bargaining agreement authorized the arbitration board to adjust compensation retroactively.

During the Civil War, Y. F. Wilson owned cotton in an insurgent state that came into the possession of agents of the Treasury Department as captured or abandoned property under the Abandoned and Captured Property Act of March 12, 1863. The agents sold the cotton and paid the proceeds into the Treasury of the United States. He took, and has not violated, the amnesty oath under the President’s proclamation. Wilson died, and Klein, as administrator of his estate, filed suit in the Court of Claims seeking recovery of the net proceeds from the cotton. On May 26, 1869, the Court of Claims rendered judgment in favor of the administrator. The United States appealed, and the appeal was filed in the Supreme Court on December 11, 1869. In the related case of United States v. Padelford, which presented similar facts involving captured and abandoned property and a presidential pardon, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Claims judgment on April 30, 1870. Congress then passed the appropriation act of July 12, 1870, containing a proviso that addressed suits for proceeds of abandoned and captured property pending in the Court of Claims and on appeal to the Supreme Court.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, was captured by militia forces in Afghanistan in November 2001 during hostilities between the United States and the Taliban regime that then governed the country. The militia turned him over to the United States military, which transported him to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in June 2002. Over a year later, on July 3, 2003, the President determined that Hamdan was eligible for trial by military commission for then-unspecified crimes. Subsequently, on July 13, 2004, the government charged Hamdan with one count of conspiracy to commit offenses triable by military commission. The charging document alleged that from February 1996 to November 2001 he had joined an enterprise with al Qaeda members and committed four overt acts in furtherance of that conspiracy. Hamdan then filed petitions for writs of habeas corpus and mandamus in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge both the authority of the military commission and the procedures it would employ. The District Court granted Hamdan's habeas petition on November 8, 2004, stayed the commission proceedings, and concluded that the commission lacked authority under the law of war and violated both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that decision, holding that the Geneva Conventions were not judicially enforceable and that the commission's jurisdiction and procedures were lawful. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on November 7, 2005. On December 30, 2005, Congress enacted the Detainee Treatment Act, after which the government moved to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. The Supreme Court postponed ruling on the motion and later denied it, retaining jurisdiction over the appeal.