June 29, 2007
Supreme Court Reverses Course On Gitmo Cases
In a remarkable turnabout, at least two justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have changed their minds about a petition and have agreed to hear the case. More significant: the case is actually two petitions from foreign terror suspects challenging the Bush administration's power to hold them in Guantanamo.
Back in April, only three justices agreed to hear the detainees' arguments -- one short of the number needed to grant a review of the case. Two others, Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy disagreed, instructing the petitioners to exhaust the lower-court options, including the newly established military tribunal system, first.
In order to grant a hearing after initially denying one, the votes of five justices are needed. It's a safe bet that Stevens and Kennedy were the justices who changed their minds, and not Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia or Chief Justice John Roberts.
The court revealed the unexpected decision in its final orders [PDF] of the term, which were issued without comment this morning.
One possible scenario is that the dismissal of charges against two other detainees earlier this month was taken into account. Two separate military judges found that those detainees could not be charged because they weren't classified as "unlawful enemy combatants," just as "enemy combatants." The Military Commissions Act, a judicial guideline for the tribunals passed by Congress last year, specifies that only "unlawful enemy combatants" could be charged.
That roadblock is more than semantics. None of the nearly 400 men being held in Guantanamo are classified as "unlawful," meaning that new legislation covering the detainees would have to be enacted before one is actually able to challenge his imprisonment before a judge. But with the administration now engaged in figuring out how to shutter the facility before President Bush leaves office in 2009, the justices may have opted to speed up the appeals process.
Photo: PH1 Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy
Posted at 12:04 PM
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Bush Administration, Constitution, Guantanamo Bay, Supreme Court
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