Breaking News

SCOTUS has ruled that detainees at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional right to challenge their detention in civilian courts.

More info as it becomes available.

UPDATE:

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court's liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. (Link)

Kennedy, Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter, and Stevens formed the majority. Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas dissented, with Roberts admonishing his colleagues in the dissent for striking down what he called "the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants." Snort.