[JURIST] AP is reporting that a US federal appeals court has ruled that Guantanamo detainees may be tried by military commissions. Read the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals opinion [PDF] in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. JURIST's Paper Chase provides background coverage of the Hamdan case. AP has more.

12:35 PM ET - The ruling overturned a lower court decision [JURIST report] which had held that military commissions were not competent to determine whether Hamdan, allegedly a former driver for Osama bin Laden, was a prisoner of war. The appeals court Friday ruled that as Hamdan was a member of al Qaida, the 1949 Geneva Convention did not apply to him and he could not assert the unlawfulness of the military commissions on that basis. AP has more.