| September 11, 2001 | Al Qaeda terrorists attack the United States, killing nearly 3,000. |
| September 17, 2001 | Congress passes, and President Bush signs, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Act, which authorizes the President "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons." |
| October 2001 | U.S. leads military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. |
| November 13, 2001 | President Bush signs "Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism" order, outlining basic procedures for trying Guantanamo Bay detainees. |
| Late 2001 | U.S. military takes custody of Salim Hamdan in Afghanistan. |
| March 21, 2002 | Department of Defense issues Military Commission Order No. 1, detailing the procedures to be used in trying the detainees. |
| June 2002 | Salim Hamdan is transported to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. |
| 2003 | Hamdan is designated as one of a small group of detainees to be tried before the military commission. |
| 2004 | Hamdan is formally charged with the offense of conspiracy "to commit . . . offenses triable by military commission."
Hamdan files a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. His case is transferred, along with those of other Guantanamo Bay detainees, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules in
Hamdan's favor. The Government appeals. |
| August 2005 | That decision is reversed by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Hamdan then asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case. |
| November 7, 2005 | U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. |
| December 30, 2005 | Congress passes the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, providing that "no court, justice, or judge" can "hear or consider" any habeas corpus petition "filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay" or any action against the U.S. or its agents "relating to any aspect of [such a] detention." The DTA also gives the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sole authority to review the final sentence of any Guantanamo Bay detainee tried by a military commission. |
| March 28, 2005 | Hamdan case is argued orally before the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| June 29, 2006 | U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-3 in Hamdan's favor. |