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Top court won’t decide Guantanamo prisoner appeal

Monday, April 2nd, 2007

A closely divided Supreme Court said on Monday it would not decide whether Guantanamo prisoners have the right to challenge their confinement before U.S. federal judges, avoiding a test of President George W. Bush’s powers in the war on terrorism.Over the strongly worded dissent of three justices, the high court said it would not rule on the constitutionality of part of an anti-terrorism law that Bush pushed through Congress last year. The law takes away the right of the foreign terrorist suspects at the U.S. prison in Cuba to have a judicial review of their detention.

The justices declined to hear two appeals by prisoners seeking to overturn a lower court ruling in February. The lower court decision said lawsuits challenging the prisoners’ detentions must be dismissed.

The Supreme Court in 2004 and 2006 rejected the Bush administration’s position that Guantanamo prisoners cannot sue in U.S. courts.

Although the court did not give any explanation for its action, two justices said the Supreme Court could consider the issue later, if the congressionally approved proceedings involve unreasonable delays or some other injury for the prisoners.

The two, John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy, issued a statement saying rejection of the appeals at this time “does not constitute any opinion on the merits” of the dispute.

There are about 385 detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The first prisoners arrived more than five years ago after the United States launched its war on terrorism in response to the September 11 attacks.

The indefinite detention and allegations of prisoner mistreatment at Guantanamo, which the U.S. military denies, have tarnished the United States’ image abroad and a chorus of allies have urged Bush to shut down the camp for foreign terrorism suspects.

Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented. The prisoners fell one vote short of the four required to grant an appeal.

“I believe these questions deserve this court’s immediate attention,” Breyer wrote. “Immediate review may avoid an additional year or more of imprisonment.”

Attorneys for the prisoners had said the ruling by a U.S. appeals court upholding the law conflicted with decisions by the Supreme Court in 2004 and 2006 that said the detainees could get a hearing before a federal judge.

Their attorneys said the prisoners have been unlawfully detained for more than five years, without a fair hearing or any meaningful way to challenge their detention.

The attorneys said the cases involved a “watershed challenge” to Bush’s authority. The Bush administration argued that the appeals should be rejected.

Prisoners receive a military proceeding, called a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, to determine if they have been rightfully deemed “an unlawful enemy combatant.”

Under the law, prisoners cannot challenge their detention before a federal district court judge. But they can get a more limited review of the tribunal’s decision before a U.S. appeals court.

The Bush administration told the Supreme Court that review before the appeals court should be allowed to go forward — an argument the Supreme Court appeared to accept.

One appeal involved 39 prisoners, nearly all of whom have been at Guantanamo for more than five years without any charges. The other appeal involved six Algerians captured in Bosnia and held at Guantanamo since January 2002.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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