Supreme Court decision supports detainees’ right to habeas corpus

Listen to this article

For the third time, the U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a blow to the Bush administration in its handling of detainees at Guantanamo.

In yesterday’s 5-4 decision, the majority determined the detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus. Justice Anthony Kennedy who authored the majority decision was the swing vote for that decision.

Justice Kennedy stated clearly that neither the President nor Congress can strip detainees of the constitutional right of habeas corpus. The U.S. Constitution only allows for suspension in times of invasion or rebellion and even then there must be an adequate substitute. He noted that the law adopted in 2006 was not such a substitute.

During NPR’s All Things Considered program, legal analyst Nina Totenberg talked about the reaction to that decision.

In a country that espouses the virtues of the rule of law and the importance of judicial review, this decision serves as an important reminder that those protections apply to everyone. If we truly hold to those values, then we should not fear that applying those standards to the Guantanamo detainees will undermine the efforts to see that they are held accountable and that justice is served.