JURIST - Paper Chase: Supreme Court rejects Guantanamo military commissions case

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] Monday declined to hear a lawsuit brought by two Guantanamo Bay detainees challenging the legality of their military commissions. In Hamdan v. Gates and Khadr v. Bush [petition for certiorari, PDF] , 06-1169, Yemeni Salim Ahmed Hamdan and Canadian Omar Khadr [TrialWatch profiles] sought to challenge the constitutionality of Congress' decision to deny habeas challenges by suspected terrorists under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text]. In early April, the Court declined to hear [JURIST report] another case brought by other Guantanamo detainees on whether those prisoners could challenge their detention in US federal court.

Last year the Supreme Court ruled that President Bush's military commission system violated US and international law in a previous lawsuit filed by Hamdan, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [PDF opinion]. Subsequently, the Bush administration proposed the current law restructuring the military commissions, but lawyers for Hamdan and Khadr contend that the new system is substantially similar to the old one. AP has more.

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