The Spectacle Blog
I’m still sorting through the decision myself, but this is probably the most important Supreme Court decision yet overturning President Bush’s policies in the War on Terror, even though in this case Congress had affirmed those policies.
The decision fell along predictable ideological lines, with Justice Kennedy acting as the tie-breaking vote and writing the majority opinion.
Orin Kerr excerpts some key passages from the ruling, and I think this part clarifies where the majority was coming from:
It is true that before today the Court has never
held that noncitizens detained by our Government in territory over
which another country maintains de jure sovereignty have any rights
under our Constitution. But the cases before us lack any precise
historical parallel. They involve individuals detained by executive
order for the duration of a conflict that, if measured from
September 11, 2001, to the present, is already among the longest
wars in American history. See Oxford Companion to American Military
History 849 (1999). The detainees, moreover, are held in a
territory that, while technically not part of the United States, is
under the complete and total control of our Government. Under these
circumstances the lack of a precedent on point is no barrier to our
holding.
I still haven’t had a chance to read the dissenting opinions
written by Scalia and Roberts, which were both joined by Alito and
Thomas. Much more at SCOTUS blog.
We hold that Art. I, §9, cl. 2, of the Constitution has full effect at Guantanamo Bay. If the privilege of habeas corpus is to be denied to the detainees now before us, Congress must act in accordance with the requirements of the Suspension Clause… . The MCA does not purport to be a formal suspension of the writ; and the Government, in its submissions to us, has not argued that it is. Petitioners, therefore, are entitled to the privilege of habeas corpus to challenge the legality of their detention.
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