A US federal appeals court ruled today that foreign-born prisoners seized as potential terrorists and held in Guantanamo Bay may not challenge their detention in US courts, a key victory for President Bush's anti-terrorism plan.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that civilian courts no longer have the authority to consider whether the military is illegally holding the prisoners - a decision that will strip court access for hundreds of detainees with cases currently pending.
"The arguments are creative but not cogent. To accept them would be to defy the will of Congress," wrote Judge Raymond Randolph in the 25-page opinion, which was joined by Judge David Sentelle.
Both are Republican appointees to the federal bench. Barring federal court access was a key provision in the Military Commissions Act, which Bush pushed through Congress last year to set up a system run by the Defence Department to prosecute terrorism suspects.
At the White House, deputy press secretary Dana Perino called the decision "a significant win" for the administration and said the Military Commissions Act provides "sufficient and fair access to courts for these detainees."
Attorneys for the detainees immediately said they would appeal to the US Supreme Court, which last year struck down the Bush administration's original plan for trying detainees before military commissions.
"We're disappointed," said Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "The bottom line is that according to two of the federal judges, the president can do whatever he wants without any legal limitations as long as he does it offshore." A spokesman for the US Justice Department, which was expected to seek dismissal of hundreds of detainee cases pending in federal court, praised the decision.
The Military Commissions Act was crafted in response to that decision, and Bush described it as a necessary tool for bringing terror suspects to justice. Civil libertarians and leading Democrats decried the law as unconstitutional and a violation of American values.
The law allows the government to detain indefinitely foreigners who have been designed as "enemy combatants" and authorises the CIA to use aggressive but undefined interrogation tactics. Most criticised by Democrats and civil libertarians was a provision that stripped US courts of the authority to hear arguments from detainees who said they were being held illegally.
The law instead authorises three-officer military panels to review whether there is sufficient evidence to justify the detention. Attorneys argued that the detainees aren't covered by that provision and the military panels don't meet minimum standards of detainees' due process rights.
But in the ruling, the DC Circuit panel said the new law did apply. "The arguments are creative but not cogent. To accept them would be to defy the will of Congress," Judge Raymond Randolph wrote.
US citizens and foreigners being held within the United States normally have the right to contest their detention before a judge. The Justice Department said foreign enemy combatants are not protected by the Constitution.