In yet another resounding slap in the face to the Bush administration on its policies during the so-called war on terror, the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ruled 5-4 that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to challenge their detention in civilian courts.
“We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said, writing for the majority.
The Court, issuing its opinion on Boumediene/Al-Odah v. Bush, cautioned it was not ruling the detainees were unjustly detained. That, Kennedy said, was a matter left to District Court judges. Instead, the court ruled that Congress has violated the constitution when it took away habeas rights. If Congress wishes to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, the Court said, it may only do say when the United States is facing a rebellion or an invasion. Presumably, the international threat posed by transnational terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida, do not fall within that Constitutionally defined doctrine.
The Supreme Court in earlier cases deemed the prior Bush-indoctrinated war crimes tribunal illegal because only Congress has to the right to establish laws of merit. In response, Congress enacted a new set of tribunal procedures and amended the Uniform Code of Military Justice to include, among others, conspiracy to commit terrorist acts against the United States as a violation of the laws of war.
The ruling follows the beginnings of the tribunal proceedings for self-proclaimed Sept. 11-mastermind, Khalid Sheik Muhammad and other co-conspirators.
