Supreme Court: Guantanamo detainees have rights

[unhappycamper]

Supreme Court: Guantanamo detainees have rights
By Mark Sherman - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 13, 2008 6:03:25 EDT

WASHINGTON — In a stinging rebuke to President Bush’s anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges.

Bush said he strongly disagreed with the decision — the third time the court has repudiated him on the detainees — and suggested he might seek yet another law to keep terror suspects locked up at the prison camp, even as his presidency winds down.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the 5-4 high court majority, acknowledged the terrorism threat the U.S. faces — the administration’s justification for the detentions — but he declared, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

In a blistering dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the decision “will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”

Bush has argued the detentions are needed to protect the U.S. in a time of unprecedented threats from al-Qaida and other foreign terrorist groups. The president, in Rome, said Thursday, “It was a deeply divided court, and I strongly agree with those who dissented.” He said he would consider whether to seek new laws in light of the ruling “so we can safely say to the American people, ‘We’re doing everything we can to protect you.’”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_guantanamo_061208w/