Judge upholds Detainee Military Detention Act

NY Times:

For the first time, a court has affirmed that a law enacted this fall accomplishes what the White House and its Congressional supporters sought: stripping the federal judiciary of the authority to hear challenges from detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

In a ruling Wednesday, Judge James Robertson of the Federal District Court here said Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantánamo, could no longer contest his detention before a federal court because, Judge Robertson said, Congress this fall explicitly eliminated his right to file a habeas corpus challenge.

The judge said the Military Commissions Act, passed by Congress in September and signed into law by President Bush the following month, was unambiguous in denying Guantánamo detainees the use of a habeas corpus statute. Like Mr. Hamdan, hundreds of other prisoners at the base have challenged their detention, in similar cases.

It was Judge Robertson who granted Mr. Hamdan’s habeas petition in November 2004, abruptly halting his war crimes trial in the middle of proceedings at Guantánamo by ruling that the process was fatally flawed.

But in his decision Wednesday, the judge said circumstances had changed fundamentally with enactment of the new law. And not only is Mr. Hamdan barred from a challenge under the habeas statute, the judge said, he cannot follow the usual second avenue to bring a habeas challenge — invoking the Constitution — because it is unclear that noncitizens at Guantánamo have that right.

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The tone of the story seems to be that it is surprising that the judge decided to follow the law that had been passed by Congress and signed by the President. The Times headline on the story also has a bazaar tone, "Judge Sets Back Guantánamo Detainees." It would be more accurate to say that the law set them back. By refusing to ignore the law or find it unconstitutional it appears the judge set back the NY Times terrorist rights agenda.