Detainees in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba were initially not provided with any mechanism with which to challenge the allegations that kept them detained. Lawyers who volunteered to represent the detainees challenged various aspects of the legal basis of the Bush administration's policy on detainees in the war on terror. As a result of Rasul v. Bush, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees needed to be provided with a mechanism whereby they could challenge the laws that kept them in detention. In July 2004 the Department of Defense responded by instituting Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
Detainees were allowed to request witnesses. The Presidents of the Tribunals had the authority to rule whether those witnesses would be "relevant." If the President ruled a witness relevant, the Tribunals officers were to undertake good faith efforts to find the witnesses.