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| SUPREME COURT RULING: War 'not a blank check for president' |
| By USA Today |
| Published: 07/02/2004 |
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The Supreme Court last Monday struck down Bush administration policies that have kept foreign terrorism suspects locked up without charges or hearings. The rulings emphasized individual liberty and the court's role in checking presidential power at a time of heightened concern about national security. "A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in one opinion. The rulings were a defeat for the administration, which has sought wide latitude in its legal strategies for responding to the 9/11 attacks. A key part of the White House's plan has been to keep captured "enemy combatants" incommunicado for what could be years. By a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that the nearly 600 foreigners in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may challenge their detentions in federal courts. Voting 8-1, the justices ruled that a U.S. citizen held as an uncharged enemy combatant has been denied a fair hearing. They said Yaser Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana, grew up in Saudi Arabia and was captured with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in late 2001, has a right to be told of any charges against him and to have his claim of innocence heard by a judge. The White House had no immediate comment on the rulings. Administration lawyers have said the threat of terrorism justified unfettered presidential authority to detain certain people, without oversight by courts or Congress. |
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