Supreme Court grants Guantánamo Bay detainees access to civilian court system

By John Hockenberry, Adaora Udoji, Kent DePinto

Friday, June 13 2008

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that suspected terrorists detained at a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have the constitutional right to contest their detentions in U.S. civilian courts. Human rights lawyer Barbara Olshanski, who argued before the Supreme Court in a 2004 Guantánamo case, dissects Thursday's decision.

The court didn't say the detainees are innocent instead it said that they must be given due process. If the Bush administration had followed the constitution from the beginning the guilty ones would have been already tried and sentenced.

Posted by Dominick DePinto, 8:26 a.m. Friday, June 13 2008 Permalink

I see no difference between September 11th and the bombing in Oklahoma City. Why does the former receive special treatment and the latter was a criminal matter?

Posted by Geoff, 8:29 a.m. Friday, June 13 2008 Permalink

The 5-4 Court decision 'protecting' the rights of Guantanamo detainees will achieve its goal of having no such detention facilities in the future: If the authorities suspect a group of plotting to harm American interests through bombings or other acts of extreme violence anywhere in the world we cannot detain, interrogate or in any way interfere with these suspects rights until AFTER they commit their acts. Since preventative intervention cannot be utilized the only practical method to stop terrorists suspects from acting is to kill them BEFORE they can carry out their plans.