Detention and Interrogation Since 9/11, many people suspected of terrorism have been detained in the United States. Most were non-citizens. Under most federal laws, noncitizens can only be detained for 24 hours without being formally charged with a crime. However, the United States Patriot Act allows noncitizens suspected of terrorist activity to be detained without being formally charged with a crime for as long as necessary to demonstrate that the detainees are not involved in terrorist activity or to gather sufficient evidence to file charges. The title, with its dry allusion to the separation of powers, does not do it justice. “Guantánamo and the Presidential Abuse of Power” represents the best account yet of what Margulies calls “a human rights debacle that will eventually take its place alongside other wartime misadventures, including the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts during World War I, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War. "The first problem in considering Gua...