[Infowarrior] - NYT: Supreme Court Blocks War-Crimes Trials at Guantanamo

[Richard Forno]

In Loss for Bush, Supreme Court Blocks War-Crimes Trials at Guantanamo
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/washington/29cnd-scotus.html?pagewanted=pr
int

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush
overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for
Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror
policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed
trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.

The case focused on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a bodyguard
and driver for Osama bin Laden. Hamdan, 36, has spent four years in the U.S.
prison in Cuba. He faces a single count of conspiring against U.S. citizens
from 1996 to November 2001.

Two years ago, the court rejected Bush's claim to have the authority to
seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny them access to
courts or lawyers. In this followup case, the justices focused solely on the
issue of trials for some of the men.

The vote was split 5-3, with moderate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy joining the
court's liberal members in ruling against the Bush administration. Chief
Justice John Roberts, named to the lead the court last September by Bush,
was sidelined in the case because as an appeals court judge he had backed
the government over Hamdan.

Thursday's ruling overturned that decision.