The U.S. government has the power to hold American citizens and foreign nationals without charges or trial, but detainees can challenge their treatment in U.S. courts, the Supreme Court ruled today, says the Associated Press. In the case of American-born detainee Yaser Esam Hamdi, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said for a 6-to-3 majority that the court has “made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.” The court issued a similar ruling in the the case of 600 foreign-born men held indefinitely at a U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The men can use American courts to contest their captivity and treatment, the justices said. The court did not issue a substantive ruling on the case of detainee Jose Padilla, saying that he must refile a lawsuit challenging his detention in a lower court.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11874-2004Jun28.html