Supreme Court rules in favor of Guantánamo detainees

[Breeze]

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

This is the third time that the court has ruled this way in a case about the legal rights of Guantánamo detainees; each ruling was a setback for the Bush administration. After the two previous rulings, Congress and the administration instituted new procedures for the trial of detainees, but this latest ruling says the current iteration of those procedures is inadequate.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, and was joined in the decision by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens. "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times," Kennedy wrote.

The court's conservative wing -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- dissented from Kennedy's opinion.

Link (http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/06/12/scotus/index.html)

[Duemellon]

3rd try's the charm right? Each time some movement came into play to give the detainees a status it was chopped down by the Bush administration. Now, with them losing power, is it possible it can stick after all this time?

[Breeze]

3rd try's the charm right? Each time some movement came into play to give the detainees a status it was chopped down by the Bush administration. Now, with them losing power, is it possible it can stick after all this time?

Well, the Bush Admin's power base (Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas) in the SC remains the same, regardless of GWB's decline. So it's not a given.

[jps]

Well, the Bush Admin's power base (Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas) in the SC remains the same, regardless of GWB's decline. So it's not a given.
good point... While I think both candidates ventured into hyperbole in their reactions on both ends of the spectrum, the decision makes the Supreme Court a fairly important issue in presidential race.

The decision seemed like a reasonable one in terms of the Gitmo situation. It will in the end allow the government, in prosecuting the detainees, the ability to show the american public why the bad guys being held are bad guys. A transparency that should make the cases stronger.

The possibility of another John Thomas Scalito on the court should in the end do well to strengthen Obama's support among women.

[Shlep]

Wait a minute...I thought that the Bush Administration had managed to scuttle the US Constitution, destroy the rule of law, dispose of due process, and effectively crush and/or rob us all of every last Constitutional right, individual liberty and cherished freedom enjoyed prior to his assuming office.

Did anyone check to make sure that this story wasn't first released by The Onion?

I'd like to think not, since this would mean that all the aforementioned isn't exactly true, and reassuringly demonstrates that the US has not in fact descended into total tyranny (or insanity) as many have been routinely claiming.

[juggles]

America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38773.html)

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.

McClatchy interviewed 66 released detainees, more than a dozen local officials — primarily in Afghanistan — and U.S. officials with intimate knowledge of the detention program. The investigation also reviewed thousands of pages of U.S. military tribunal documents and other records.

This unprecedented compilation shows that most of the 66 were low-level Taliban grunts, innocent Afghan villagers or ordinary criminals. At least seven had been working for the U.S.-backed Afghan government and had no ties to militants, according to Afghan local officials. In effect, many of the detainees posed no danger to the United States or its allies.

The investigation also found that despite the uncertainty about whom they were holding, U.S. soldiers beat and abused many prisoners.

Prisoner mistreatment became a regular feature in cellblocks and interrogation rooms at Bagram and Kandahar air bases, the two main way stations in Afghanistan en route to Guantanamo.