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![About 270 so-called enemy combatants remain at the prison facility [AFP]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/Abuse/3/enemy-combatants.jpg "About 270 so-called enemy combatants remain at the prison facility [AFP]") | | About 270 so-called enemy combatants remain at the prison facility [AFP] |
The US Supreme Court has said foreigners held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison have the right under the US constitution to challenge their detention in US civilian courts.
The court ruled on Thursday that detainees in the US jail in southern Cuba "have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus".
"The laws and constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times," said Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court.
The ruling, passed by a vote of five to four, is a setback to the administration of George Bush, the US president. Marjorie Cohn MWC News Senior Editor, said today: "The Supreme Court held that the Guantánamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus and that the scheme for reviewing designations of 'enemy combatant' under the Combatant Status Review Tribunals is an inadequate substitute for habeas corpus. "Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority in the 5-4 decision, breaking the tie between the liberal and conservative justices: 'Security subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom's first principles. Chief among these are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers ..." "Within the Constitution's separation-of-powers structure, few exercises of judicial power are as legitimate or as necessary as the responsibility to hear challenges to the authority of the Executive to imprison a person.' Boumedienne is the poster child for how delicately the Court is now balanced, and the disastrous consequences to the doctrine of separation-of-powers that await us if a President ." Constitutional rights
The court ruled that even if the base was officially on Cuban territory, it was in fact operating as if it were on American soil and therefore detainees had the same constitutional rights as all Americans.
The ruling is the third on Guantanamo that has gone against the Bush administration.
Bush's aides "are reviewing the opinion", Dana Perino, the White House spokesperson, said, though she gave no further immediate comment. Detainees and their legal teams could now demand that the government reveal the evidence against them to justify their continued detention.
The government has refused to do this arguing it would be against the interests of national security.
Detainees have long protested that they had been mistreated, and rights groups have questioned the legality of the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals.
But it was not immediately clear whether the ruling would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than 6 years.
About 270 so-called enemy combatants remain at the prison facility.
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