Due Process; A Detached Judge; And Enemy Combatants

In the landmark administrative law decision of Goldberg v. Kelly, Justice Brennan stated that an “impartial decision maker is essential” to procedural due process. As a corollary, in the more recent decision of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Justice O'Connor stated that “due process requires a neutral and a detached judge in the first instance.” Thus, the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution require that the essential element of neutrality remain an integral part of any administrative hearing. There can be no departure from this fundamental guarantee of constitutional due process for the administrative hearings accorded to enemy combatants.