WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has intervened directly for the first time in the Bush administration’s prosecution of the war on terrorism, announcing Monday that it will consider the legal rights of the 660 prisoners now held at a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Until now, lower federal courts have said that the Guantanamo detainees, all of whom are foreign nationals, have no right to demand their freedom in U.S. courts. But in a brief order, the court said it would review whether the detainees should be able to contest their captivity in American courts.
Most of the prisoners were captured by the United States and its allies during fighting or intelligence operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and have since been held without trial and interrogated at Guantanamo under conditions of near-total secrecy.
The court’s announcement sets the stage for a potentially historic ruling in which the justices must balance the president’s assertion of his constitutional powers as commander in chief against human rights claims that are based in part on international law.
The Bush administration had urged the court not to review the case, arguing in its brief that the "detention serves the vital objectives of preventing combatants from continuing to aid our enemies and gathering intelligence to further the overall war effort."
Friend-of-the-court briefs submitted on behalf of the detainees offered the justices an equally dramatic view of the stakes, suggesting the United States risks its reputation as a beacon of liberty, and drawing parallels between the Guantanamo detentions and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
About 64 inmates, mostly Afghanis and Pakistanis, have been released from Guantanamo, and four more have been flown to Saudi Arabia, where they are still jailed. U.S. officials are privately negotiating the return of scores more Guantanamo Bay detainees to their home nations.
About 660 prisoners are still held at the prison, as newly arrived detainees replace those who are repatriated. The prison would be the site for any future military tribunals, cases in which accused terrorists are tried before military judges. Any executions would take place there, too.
The Bush administration has asserted sweeping authority over the Guantanamo detainees, saying they have no access to U.S. courts because they are unlawful enemy combatants captured on foreign battlefields and because Guantanamo is not American but Cuban territory.
Therefore, the administration argues, the prisoners may be kept at Guantanamo for as long as President Bush considers it necessary to the war against the al-Qaida network and its allies.
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