Ex Parte Quirin

A 1942 Supreme Court decision that allowed the military, instead of civil courts, to try foreign nationals from enemy countries caught entering the United States to commit destructive acts. The case of Ex Parte Quirin stemmed from a failed 1941 plan, known as Operation Pastorius, in which a German submarine intended to put two teams of infiltrators ashore to commit sabotage against the United States. All of the men had been born in Germany, lived in the United States, and then returned to their homeland. However, before the saboteurs could strike, one of the participants foiled the plot by revealing the details to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The saboteurs who had already entered the United States were subsequently arrested.

In a unanimous, but highly debated decision, the Supreme Court ruled that that the detainees did not have a right to a trial by jury. Some legal scholars claim that the ruling in Ex Parte Quirin ran counter to an earlier court decision that prohibited military court hearings from trying enemy nationals if civilian courts were available. The Germans were convicted and six were hanged; the others served almost six years in prison before being deported to Germany.

During the U.S.-led war against terrorism, members of the administration of President George W. Bush have invoked Ex Parte Quirin to validate the government's right to use military tribunals to try foreign nationals suspected of terrorism. Many legal scholars have labeled the Ex Parte Quirin decisions as one of the Supreme Court's failures to uphold civil liberties in times of war, along with the decision to uphold the constitutionality of interning Japanese Americans during World War II.