Supreme Court - Reversed Course Today - Will Hear Case on Detainees (Guantánamo)

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Supreme Court Will Hear Case on Detainees

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/washington/29cnd-gitmo.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1183137469-W4iygkXSog6OSQXvs9CEjQ

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: June 29, 2007

The United States Supreme Court reversed course today and agreed to hear claims of Guantánamo detainees that they have a right to challenge their detentions in American federal courts.

The decision, announced in a brief order released this morning, set the stage for a historic legal battle that appeared likely to affect debates in the Bush administration about when and how to close the detention center that has become a lightening rod for international criticism.

Lawyers for many of the 375 men now held at the naval station on a scrubby corner of Cuba greeted the unexpected news with euphoria, saying it appeared the court was headed toward a ruling on one of the central principles of the administration’s detention policies: the claim that the government can hold people the military labels enemy combatants without allowing them to use the ancient legal tool of the writ of habeas corpus, a legal action used in English law for centuries to challenge the legality of detentions.

“Finally, after nearly six years, the Supreme Court is going to rule on the ultimate question: does the constitution protect the people detained at Guantánamo Bay?” said Neal Kaytal, a Georgetown University law professor who argued the last Supreme Court case dealing with the Guantánamo detainees. In that case, decided last June, the justices struck down the administration’s planned system for war crimes trials of detainees.

The issue in the case the court agreed to hear on Friday is whether the Congress can strip the federal courts of the power to hear such habeas corpus cases filed by Guantánamo detainees. In legislation passed after last June’s Supreme Court ruling, Congress included a provision barring such suits by the detainees.

“The Supreme Court has taken a giant step toward ensuring the detainees a day in court,” said David H. Remes, a Washington lawyer who represents Yemeni detainees at Guantánamo.

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