Test of Bush's terror-fighting authority heads to higher court (al-Marri case)

[struggle4progress]

Before the federal appeals judges: What rights does a noncitizen legal resident have when the government names him an enemy combatant?
By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

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The open-ended detention of an Arab student suspected of being an Al Qaeda sleeper agent is setting the stage for the next major showdown over the scope of President Bush's authority to fight terrorism on American soil.

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been held in government custody for more than five years and has spent the last three and a half years in a South Carolina military prison under interrogation as a presidentially designated enemy combatant.

For 17 months of that time he was held incommunicado, with no ability to consult a lawyer, appear before a neutral judge to test the legality of his detention, or even tell his wife and five children he was alive.

Mr. Marri's lawyers say his confinement by military authorities rather than in the civilian justice system violates both US law and the Constitution ...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0131/p01s01-usju.html