April 02, 2007

SCOTUS Rejects Gitmo Appeal

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 this morning to reject two appeals from Guantanamo Bay detainees who had hoped to challenge a lower court's ruling on the validity of their detention by the U.S. government.

The justices "left intact a lower court decision that said" the 2006 Military Commissions Act "validly bars federal judges from considering so-called habeas corpus petitions filed by prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Cuba," Bloomberg News reports. AP is calling the ruling "a victory for the Bush administration's legal strategy in its fight against terrorism." Despite two earlier rulings that "extended legal protections to prisoners," none of Guantanamo's "roughly 385 detainees has yet had a hearing in a civilian court challenging his detention because the administration has moved aggressively to limit the legal rights of prisoners it has labelled enemy combatants," AP reports.

In an opinion for dissenting Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, Breyer wrote that "these questions deserve this court's immediate attention."

But Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy disagreed, saying "the detainees should first go before military tribunals, leaving open the possibility of later Supreme Court review to consider whether the military 'has unreasonably delayed' those proceedings," Bloomberg News reports.

Australian prisoner David Hicks became the first detainee convicted on terrorism charges in a Gitmo military tribunal late last week. And the Washington Post reported this morning that Democratic leaders in Congress are planning to challenge the 2006 law on military tribunals and intensify their demands for the Cuban base's closure when they return from spring recess.

Posted at 11:16 AM
Posted to: Guantanamo Bay, Supreme Court
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