The executive branch of the United States government claimed at the time that enemy combatants were beyond the jurisdiction of the US courts. The United States Supreme Court overruled executive efforts to keep the enemy combatants outside the US judicial system; in decisions in 2004, it ruled that both American and foreign detainees had the right to challenge their detentions before an impartial tribunal. The executive branch established Combatant Status Review Tribunals in 2004 to evaluate whether detainees were enemy combatants.