A federal appeals panel handed the Bush administration a victory Tuesday in the long legal battle over foreign "enemy combatants" held without trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that hundreds of prisoners have no right to challenge their detention in federal court.
Tuesday's ruling on the new Military Commissions Act sets up a third Supreme Court showdown.
"This decision empowers the president to do whatever he wishes to prisoners without any legal limitation as long as he does it off shore," said Shayana Kadidal, attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of the detainees and plans an immediate appeal. "The matter will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court for a third time."
A federal appeals panel handed the Bush administration a victory Tuesday in the long legal battle over foreign "enemy combatants" held without trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that hundreds of prisoners have no right to challenge their detention in federal court.
Tuesday's ruling on the new Military Commissions Act sets up a third Supreme Court showdown.
"This decision empowers the president to do whatever he wishes to prisoners without any legal limitation as long as he does it off shore," said Shayana Kadidal, attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of the detainees and plans an immediate appeal. "The matter will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court for a third time."
