Supreme Court strikes down White House’s detainee policy
By Linda Greenhouse
New York Times News Service
06-30-2006
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday repudiated the Bush administration's plan to put Guantanamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law.
“The executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction,” Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the 5-3 majority, said at the end of a 73-page opinion that in sober tones shredded each of the administration's arguments, including the assertion that Congress had stripped the court of jurisdiction to decide the case. A principal but by no means the only flaw the court found in the commissions was that the president had established them without congressional authorization.
The decision was such a sweeping and categorical defeat for the administration that it left human rights lawyers who have pressed this and other cases on behalf of Guantanamo detainees almost speechless with surprise and delight, using words like “fantastic,” “amazing,” “remarkable.” Michael Ratner, president of the centre for Constitutional Rights, a public interest law firm in New York that represents hundreds of detainees, said, “It doesn't get any better.”
The ruling marked the most significant setback yet for the administration's broad expansions of presidential power.
President Bush said he planned to work with Congress to “find a way forward,” and there were signs of bipartisan interest on Capitol Hill in crafting legislation that would authorize new, revamped commissions intended to withstand judicial scrutiny.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill immediately and said his committee would hold a hearing on July 11, as soon as Congress returns from the July 4 recess. Specter said the administration had resisted his effort to propose similar legislation as early as 2002.
The majority opinion by Stevens and a concurring opinion by justice Anthony Kennedy, who also signed most of Stevens' opinion, indicated that finding a legislative solution would not necessarily be easy.
The majority opinion was also joined by Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. The dissenters were Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Each wrote a dissenting opinion.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. did not take part in the case. Last July, four days before Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court, he was one of the members of a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court here that ruled for the administration in the case.
