# Has an "unlawful combatant" any legal recourse to challenge that designation?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-unlawful-combatant-any-legal-recourse-to-challenge-that-designation/459651>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 11, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-unlawful-combatant-any-legal-recourse-to-challenge-that-designation/459651 "2008-08-11T20:03:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-an-unlawful-combatant-any-legal-recourse-to-challenge-that-designation/459651/1 "2008-08-11T20:03:50Z")

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All the news coverage of the recent trial and sentencing of [Salim Hamdan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Ahmed_Hamdan) emphasizes that, even though he received a sentence just six months in excess of the time he’s already been in custody and he will get credit for that time served, he remains designated an [“unlawful combatant”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_combatant#United_States) and therefore might be held indefinitely after completing his sentence.

So – how does he prove, or get a chance to prove, that he is not in fact an “unlawful combatant”? What legal recourse is there for a person so designated? The [Combatant Status Review Tribunals](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combatant_Status_Review_Tribunal) hardly seem an adequate answer, the very names of the presiding officers being classified and much of the proceedings being kept secret from the designated parties.