The United States Congress's passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was intended to strip the Guantanamo captives of the right to access the US justice system, including writs of habeas corpus.
[3] On June 12 of 2008 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the executive branch could not keep the Guantanamo captives from accessing the US Judicial system.
In an unrelated development, on June 20, 2008, an appeals court in Washington considering Parhat v. Gates under the Detainee Treatment Act, overruled Uyghur captive Hassan Parhat's Combatant Status Review Tribunal's determination that he was an "enemy combatant", based a lack of evidence.
In June 2009 Willett and Susan Baker Manning accompanied four Uyghurs, including Hassan Parhat, to freedom in Bermuda.
The Micronesian state of Palau announced it would accept the other thirteen Uyghurs, but there have been complications, and they remain at Guantanamo.