[rmnunez]

THERE IS DUE PROCESS FOR GUANTANAMO DETAINEES!

By a 5-3 vote it was held trials of the suspects violated US law and the Geneva Conventions. Those trials were the ad-hoc Military Tribunals used to determine whether specific suspects were covered by those Conventions. The Court’s holding sounds pretty clear to me, but there have to be efforts to mitigate its effects.

Bush has already said it doesn’t mean they’re releasing the detainees and we can expect he will now seek legislation to proceed lawfully. In the short term future captures probably will be held secretly and offshore until appropriate legislation can be implemented. White House counsel says they are just now trying to figure out how to design military tribunals that would pass muster under the decision.

The Court found that the Military Tribunals had to comply with due process requirements derived from the Constitution and Geneva Conventions absent express authorization from Congress. It was also held the Supreme Court would retain jurisdiction for appeals.

J. Stevens, delivered the opinion of the majority finding that the Bush administration lacked the authority to take the "extraordinary measure" of scheduling special military trials for inmates, in which defendants have fewer legal protections than in civilian US courts. This indicates the distinction based on nationality is not applicable, therefore the same proceedings seen for US citizens charged as terrorists would be applicable, pending legislation for these detainees from Congress.

I wonder how this will play politically on the eve of elections, presumably none of these legislators wants to appear too defensive of Guantanamo detainee rights, but they must be sallivating at the prospect of citing that their nemesis "exceeded his authority" language.