US Supreme Court hears Guantanamo case

Dec 5, 2007, 17:21 GMT

Washington - Lawyers for prisoners in the war on terrorism appeared before the US Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking the right for their clients to challenge their detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the federal court system.

The cases, Boumediene versus Bush and al-Odah versus the United States, marked the third time in as many years Guantanamo detainees have gone to the highest US court seeking access to the federal system.

Attorneys representing US President George W Bush's administration argued that the detainees were already able to challenge their detention through an existing legal process set up by the US military in Guantanamo.

During the hearing, the nine-member bench debated whether the United States was technically at war, which Justice Antonin Scalia said would justify the indefinite holding of the detainees.

'We had 400,000 German prisoners in this country during World War II ... and not a single habeas petition,' he said, using the legal term for the right of prisoners to challenge their case.

Justice David Souter, however, told the government lawyers that it was important for federal courts to consider legal arguments from the detainees.

'If you win we never get to these issues,' Souter said.

The Supreme Court has already twice ruled in 2004 and 2006 against attempts by the Bush administration to bar terrorism suspects from challenging their detentions in federal court.

The last ruling didn't strike down the policy, but instead ordered Bush to get congressional approval for the military commissions set up by the White House to try the detainees. Congress later passed legislation authorizing the process.

Government lawyers told the bench under the rules that detainees can challenge legal aspects of the military process in the federal courts, even though they cannot specifically challenge their cases.