In December 2003, Lt. Commander Charles Swift, a Navy lawyer, was appointed to represent Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Guantánamo Bay detainee and Osama bin Laden’s former driver. Hamdan was to be tried before a military tribunal on the charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.

Hamdan didn’t want to plead guilty, so Swift decided to challenge the system of military tribunals itself by suing the man who had created it: his boss, President Bush.

“Filing a lawsuit against the president wasn’t our idea of courage,” said Swift, who is now on the faculty at the School of Law. “Real courage was to face the idea that we could be embarrassed and we could fail and do it anyway.”

The controversial case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, proceeded all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hamdan, a Yemeni man, denied a role in the 9/11 attacks and protested the injustice of the Bush administration’s military commissions.

It was the second time Swift had appeared in federal court, and only the first time for his partner, Neal Katyal.

“It was hard to find anyone who believed for a moment that we would be successful,” Swift said.

Swift and Katyal won the case for Hamdan, with the Supreme Court ruling that military commissions violated the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Two weeks after the decision, however, Swift was passed over for promotion at the Pentagon, leading to his retirement from the military. Many speculated that this surprise had something to do with Swift’s controversial stance defending a man accused of aiding terrorism.

Swift, who was named one of the National Law Journal’s ”100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” in 2006, was appointed to the law school’s faculty in July.

David F. Partlett, the dean of the law school, said Swift’s supposed controversial stance does not detract from, but rather adds to Swift’s strength of character.

“I think it’s a great thing for Emory law school to have someone who believes so thoroughly in the way law should work in America,” Partlett said. “He’s an excellent lawyer and he believes that everyone should have the protection of law — and good lawyers everywhere want that.”

Shaina Stahl, a third-year law student, also said Swift’s presence will only add to the University’s prestige.

“I think that it’s good to have more and more controversial people — it sparks discussion and that’s what we’re here to do in an academic environment,” Stahl said.

Visiting Associate Professor Charles Swift was born in Franklin, N.C., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1984 before attending Seattle University Law School. After graduating cum laude, Swift joined the Judge Advocate General’s Corps so he could practice law while remaining a uniformed officer of the U.S. Navy.

Named Junior Officer of the Year in 1997 at Naval Legal Service Northwest, Swift went on to represent more than 150 service members in military justice proceedings.

“The greatest reward you will ever receive in your life is from public service,” Swift said. “The amazing thing about life is that it is impossible to know, when that opportunity is presented, whether you will or won’t [seize it].”

Swift, a history major at the Naval Academy, expressed admiration for President John Adams, who after the Boston Massacre represented the British soldiers in court, to the detriment of his reputation.

“I think that [America’s] greatest strength is that we are first and foremost a nation of laws,” Swift said, praising the United States’ system, in which someone like Hamdan can triumph over the President in court.

Now the acting director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic, an offshoot of the work of six Emory law students who also worked with Guantánamo Bay detainees, Swift emphasized the idea that students should get involved in humanitarian efforts.

“You are receiving at Emory an incredible gift … and that is the ability to make a difference,” Swift said. “If students come to this school and say, ‘I believe in what I believe in, I understand that I could fail, but I’m going to do it anyway,’ they are going to make an incredible difference in this world.”

Partlett also spoke of the importance of having Swift on campus as an emblem of humanitarian law and the great benefits both faculty and students will reap from his presence at Emory.

“We’re all delighted,” Partlett said. “He’s a wonderful colleague, he’s very outgoing, his experience is vast, and it’s great for him to be here.”

— Contact Shalini Ramachandran at sdramac@emory.edu