On October 20, 2016, the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the federal government’s authority to bring a senior al Qaeda official to trial before a military commission on charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes. The decision was a victory for WLF, which filed a brief urging the appeals court to overturn the decision of a three-judge panel that threw out the defendant’s conviction. The panel held that military commission jurisdiction is limited to offenses approved by international tribunals, and that those tribunals have never recognized conspiracy as an offense chargeable under the international law of war. The en banc court agreed with WLF that the U.S. Constitution permits Congress to decide for itself what offenses constitute violations of the law of war. WLF filed its brief on behalf of six retired generals and admirals with extensive experience in addressing law-of-war issues. The Allied Educational Foundation also joined the brief.