Supreme Court Says Guantanamo Trials Illegal
President George Bush refused to rule out military tribunals for inmates at Guantanamo Bay detention center despite the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that he had overstepped his authority in creating military war crimes trials for Guantanamo detainees. The 5-3 verdict is seen in Washington as a rebuke to the administration’s effort to keep terror suspects out of US judicial system.The ruling puts Bush in a difficult position because he has said on several occasions that he is awaiting the Supreme Court’s verdict before deciding the proper forum to try Guantanamo prisoners. What now?
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the ruling, which said the proposed trials were illegal under US law and the Geneva Convention. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Guantanamo detainee, had initiated the legal proceedings that led to the court declaring the Guantanamo military tribunals illegal. Hamdan, who according to US authorities, was a driver for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, had challenged the military trials as illegal.
The US media projected the case as one of the most significant cases since World War II because it sought to define presidential war powers regarding war prisoners.
Republican senators immediately began planning how to win congressional approval for new tribunals.
President Bush promised to take the findings of the court "very seriously" when he spoke to reporters shortly after the ruling on Thursday. But he signalled he might seek congressional approval to resurrect the tribunals.
"To the extent that there is latitude to work with the Congress to determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which to give people their day in court, we will do so," he said.
"The American people need to know that this ruling, as I understand it, won't cause killers to be put out on the street."
This latest decision was welcomed by human rights groups, lawyers for inmates and some politicians including senior Democrat Senator Carl Levin.
"The Supreme Court has once again demonstrated its vital constitutional role as a check and balance on the actions of the executive and legislative branches of government," he said in a statement.
- June 29, 2006
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