High Court’s Habeas Decision: A Closer Look

Alliance for Justice has released its analysis of yesterday’s Supreme Court decision determining that the hundreds of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. federal courts.

Striking a huge blow to the Bush administration's aggrandizement of executive power, the Supreme Court has issued a 5-4 decision restoring the full scope of the ancient writ of habeas corpus and reasserting our country's commitment to its core constitutional principals. Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, struck down the provisions of the Military Commissions Act and the Detainee Treatment Act that purported to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over habeas petitions by non-citizens who have been labeled "enemy combatants" by the executive branch…The Court held that the President may not circumvent the Constitution's requirement that the detainees be given a fair hearing before an impartial judge, and in doing so have paved the way for people who have been held for six years without charge to finally get their day in court.

To read our entire report on the Boumediene decision, click here.