After September 11, 2001, there have been calls within the George W. Bush administration to designate captured terrorist suspects as enemy combatants and have them either be tried in a military tribunal or be held indefinitely (The New York Times 11/19/2003). One of the reasons for this designation was that the civilian court system would be inadequate for putting these suspected terrorists on trial. Furthermore, the public nature of these trials would endanger national security by having potential classified information revealed to the public and in turn aid the terrorists.

However, the Boston bombing trial is yet another example of the resilience of the America's civilian court system of handling terror cases. There was no need to violate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's constitutional rights for the civilian jury to render a decision of guilty in all charges laid out by the federal prosecutors. During the trial, no national secrets have to be revealed by the prosecution, because all civilian protocols were followed during and after the arrest of Tsarnaev's arrest.

Granted, Tsarnaev's terrorist act was not a coordinated attack with any pre-existing terror group but instead was an individual act. If the country faced a different situation with an international coordinated terrorist attack, such as the September 11th attack, then the prosecutorial evidence might have included information from the national intelligence network, which might contain sensitive national secrets.

Even then, there is no reason why the civilian court could not adapt to such cases. The Tsarnaev's case shows that the country does not necessarily need to prosecute terror suspects outside the civilian system to serve justice. Even if critical prosecutorial evidence includes sensitive national secrets, the civilian court system can apply appropriate measures, including sealing such evidence from the public court records. Even in normal criminal cases, not all evidences are revealed to the public, especially graphic and gruesome photographs of the crime.

One of the benefits of the civilian court system is the public ability to review and hopefully come to terms with the justice system. It also shows the rest of the world that the United States treats all suspects with dignity under the rule of law, even to heinous terrorists. Our civilian justice system, the one of the pride pillars of our country, stands firm.