Supreme Court Rules Gitmo Inmates Can Access Civilian Courts

June 12, 2008 8:12 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A U.S. Supreme Court decision issued Thursday said foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay have rights to challenge in American civilian courts their detention in the military facility in Cuba.

On a vote of 5 to 4, the Supreme Court said by holding indefinitely the suspects at the naval base while no charges have been filed against them, the rights of the prisoners were violated.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

It was the Supreme Court's third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of Guantanamo Bay inmates. The facility has 270 prisoners kept on suspicion of terrorism and links to groups like al-Qaida and the Taliban. Some of them have been detained for over six years without charges.

Aside from upholding the Constitutional rights of the detainees, the Supreme Court also declared the system which classified the prisoners as enemy combatants and the review mechanism inadequate.

Justice Kennedy had on his side Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens. The justices who held an opposing view were made up of Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and John Roberts.

Roberts criticized the majority ruling because it destroyed "the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained in this country as enemy combatants."

Scalia expressed reservation that with the U.S. ongoing battle against radical Islamists, the Supreme Court's ruling "will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."

In two decisions, the Supreme Court had stated those detained at Guantanamo Bay without charges could file a case with civilian courts to have the government justify their continued detention. For both rulings, the Republican-controlled administration and Congress amended the law to prevent the detainees from bringing their cases to civilian courts.