BREAKING: Supreme Court Strikes Down Tribunals

In a major victory for rule of law and containing the war powers of a President, the Supreme Court found the military tribunals set up in Gitmo violated military regulations and agreements on prisoners of war. This is a proud day for America. Despite Bush's attempt to stack the Court with cronies, he is not a dictator.
WaPo

The Supreme Court today delivered a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration over its plans to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, ruling that the commissions are unconstitutional. In a 5-3 decision, the court said the trials were not authorized under U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion in the case, called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recused himself from the case.


[...]Congress entered the fray in December, passing the Detainee Treatment Act, which stripped federal courts of jurisdiction over Guantanamo detainees' habeas corpus petitions that were "pending on or after" the date of the law's enactment. The act also provided an alternative military process for reviewing the enemy combatant status of detainees and designated the D.C. Circuit appeals court as the sole venue for appeals of military commission verdicts.

BBC NEWS

In its ruling, the court said: "We conclude that the military commission convened to try Hamdan lacks power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate" agreements on prisoners of war, as well as US military rules. Five of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court supported the ruling. Three voted against. Chief Justice John Roberts did not vote because he had judged the case at an earlier stage before joining the Supreme Court.


One of the dissenters, Justice Clarence Thomas, took the unusual step of reading part of his opinion from the bench, saying the decision would "sorely hamper the president's ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy".

CBS News

Pamela Falk, a law professor who has been to the Base, "because the rebuke was on international law and U.S. Law grounds and gives support to the Geneva Conventions in U.S. courts."


[...]Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito also filed dissents.


In his own opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer said, "Congress has not issued the executive a 'blank check.' Indeed, Congress has denied the president the legislative authority to create military commissions of the kind at issue here. Nothing prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary," Breyer wrote.