# Military Commissions Act **Status: stub — expand.** Signed **October 17, 2006**, in direct response to [[Hamdan v. Rumsfeld]]. It authorized military commissions by statute, defined offenses triable before them, and **removed federal habeas jurisdiction entirely** over any alien detained as an enemy combatant — not just prospectively, but for pending cases. That provision was held to be an unconstitutional suspension in [[Boumediene v. Bush]] (2008) because Congress had supplied no adequate substitute. A revised **Military Commissions Act of 2009** narrowed the commissions' procedures without restoring the stripped jurisdiction. **Why it matters:** the clearest instance in modern law of Congress attempting to legislate a constitutional right out of practical existence, and of a court refusing. ## See Also - [[Habeas Corpus Timeline]] · [[Habeas Corpus]] · [[Suspension Clause]]