Supreme Court Rules Enemy Combatants Get Habeas Corpus, Too
 Saturday, June 28th, 2008

The trailer where Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held. Yes, a Tribunal Trailer.

Forgive us if you've heard this news already, but it's yet another thing that happened while we were on vacation, and it's such a landmark event that we can't not cover it. It's huge, actually. You must've heard by now about the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the rights to carry a gun, including in DC where there was formerly a hand gun ban. But in the wrapping up of its 2007-2008 term, the Supreme Court also handed down an equally enormous decision: in a 5-4 majority, the Court held that prisoners - including those in Guantanamo Bay and other military detention facilities, and anyone designated an enemy combatant - have a right to habeas corpus, and that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) is an unconstitutional suspension of that right.

The decision came down on June 12th through Boumediene v. Bush (that's right, President George W. Bush). Lakdar Boumediene is a naturalized citizen of Bosnia Herzegovina who has been held in military detention in Guantanamo by the U.S. since January of 2002. The Supreme Court of Bosnia had ruled there was no evidence against Boumediene, whom American intelligence analysts in the Embassy believed might be involved with Al Qaeda. When Bosnian forces freed Boumediene and five other men, American forces were waiting for them and transported them all to Guatanamo Bay.

The court also found that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 is not an adequate substitute for habeas corpus, and is unconstitutional as well.

Justice Anthony Kennedy called the Combatant Status Review Tribunals "inadequate," saying "to hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on and off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say what the law is."

So the Administration's little Acts to grant Bush unlimited authority are unconstitutional - something we all knew, but it's nice to hear it made official.

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