Al Odah v. United States of America

Juvenile Law Center filed an amicus brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the United States Supreme Court, and in the Court of Military Commission Review in support of Omar Khadr, a juvenile detained at Guantanamo Bay. Khadr, a Canadian national, was seized in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was 15 years old; he was subsequently transferred to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. He is the only child soldier ever to be accused of a war crime in the United States. Throughout his detention, Khadr was subject to interrogation and torture in the form of physical and psychological abuse. His juvenile status had not been taken into account in his treatment or in the conditions of his confinement at Guantanamo.

Juvenile Law Center argued that Congress could not have intended for the Military Commissions Act to have jurisdiction over juveniles in light of the consistent recognition under federal law of the distinctive status of juveniles and the growing body of developmental research confirming this status.

Although the Supreme Court did not directly address the issue of Khadr’s minor status, it did hold that aliens detained as enemy combatants at the Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to the privilege of habeas corpus to challenge the legality of their detention, and remanded to the lower courts to provide a “meaningful review” regarding whether they were held illegally.