Court told it lacks power in detainee cases

Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush last week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified a US District Court in Washington that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates in Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. In a notice dated Oct. 18, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act, it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future. Beyond those already imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay or elsewhere, the law applies to all non-US citizens, including permanent US residents. The new law already has been challenged as unconstitutional by lawyers representing the petitioners. The issue of detainee rights is likely to reach the Supreme Court for a third time. Immediately after Bush signed the act into law on Oct.17, the Justice Department sent a letter to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asserting the new authorities and informing the court that it no longer had jurisdiction over a combined habeas case that had been under consideration since 2004. A number of legal scholars and members of Congress, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), have said that the habeas provision of the new law violates a clause of the Constitution that says the right to challenge detention "shall not be suspended" except in cases of "rebellion or invasion." Historically, the Constitution has been interpreted to apply equally to citizens and noncitizens under US jurisdiction.