US Supreme Court Hears Case on Guantanamo Bay Detainees

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday over the Bush administration’s detention of suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Attorneys for more than three dozen Guantanamo detainees will argue that their clients are entitled to habeus corpus, which gives defendants the right to challenge their detention by the government before federal courts.

The administration says foreign terror suspects have no rights under the U.S. Constitution to appear before federal courts. But the high court has ruled against the Bush administration twice before over the controversial issue, including a 2004 opinion that said detainees have the right of habeus corpus.

The U.S. Congress, led by President Bush’s Republican Party, responded by passing the Detainee Treatment Act in 2006, which stripped the detainees of the rights.

The legislation established military commissions to try the Guantanamo detainees as enemy combatants.

More than 300 suspected terrorists are being held at Guantanamo Bay.

by VOA News

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