WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Suspected terrorists and foreign fighters held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in federal court, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The decision marked another legal blow to the Bush administration's war on terrorism policies.
In a 5-4 ruling, the justices said the U.S. military lacks the legal autonomy to prosecute as many as 300 prisoners.
At issue were the rights of the detainees to contest their imprisonment as well as the rules established to try them in military tribunals.
A congressional law passed in 2006 would limit court jurisdiction to hear such challenges.
It is a legal question the justices have tackled three times since 2004, including Thursday's ruling.
Each time the high court ruled against the government's claim that it has the authority to hold people it labels "enemy combatants."
bagwa-john -- yup -- http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_9562577 -- damn straight! -- hugely important decision, indeed historic, significance to every last one of us, including our perfectly unclear-on-the-concept right-wingers, cannot be overstated -- at a fragile 5-4 it also shows just how close we are to a Supreme Court that would ignore the plain language of the Constitution, strip all of us of our most basic right, and purport to make 'legal' Federalist Society above the law 'unitary executive' fascism -- which is exactly what that is -- the 4 'Justices' who voted in the minority, traitors all in the deepest possible sense, should on that basis alone be summarily impeached, convicted and frog-marched right straight out of the Court
and as if it weren't already screamingly obvious enough just how important this Presidential election truly is -- . . .
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
