Supreme Court to Hear Guantánamo Detainees’ Case

[Lawood]

Don't get your hopes set too high. Recall this is almost a neocon, rubber stamp SCOTUS.

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
NYT
June 29, 2007

The United States Supreme Court reversed course today and agreed to hear claims of Guantanamo detainees that they have a right to challenge their detentions in American federal courts.

The decision, announced in a brief order released this morning, set the stage for a historic legal battle that appeared likely to shape debates in the Bush administration about when and how to close the detention center that has become a lightning rod for international criticism.

The exceptionally unusual order, which required votes from five of the nine justices, gave lawyers for detainees more than they had requested in a motion asking the justices to reconsider an April decision declining to review the same case. Lawyers for detainees had asked only that the court hold the case open for future consideration. Today’s order meant that the court would hear the case in its next term, perhaps by December.

Experts on the Supreme Court said the justices so rarely grant such motions for reconsideration that the order itself was significant. .......
http://tinyurl.com/2yexcd

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

The solid 4 wingnuts with Kennedy assisting may actually think about this one. Scalia especially loves his own power, and anything that hands the executive more power is taking it away from the Court as well as the Lege. Alito loves the principal of monarchy so much he's practically a suckerfish attached to W's bum, but I think Roberts is smart enough not to cut his own throat to provide blood for Vampire Cheney. And of course, this not being a particularly religious issue, Kennedy may vote for the Constitution (which establishes habeas corpus in terms of what the government may not do, and not in terms of who the government may not do it to).