Brief: Legal Protections for Gitmo Detainees Unsurpassed

The Bush administration argues in a U.S. Supreme Court brief (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) that detainees at Guantanamo Bay “enjoy more procedural protections than any other captured enemy combatants in the history of warfare.”

The brief says the court should uphold a law barring habeas appeals in the federal courts because the detainees have no constitutional rights, the New York Times reports. The issue in the case is whether habeas corpus protection is limited to American citizens and U.S. territory.

The government argues current laws provide “a constitutionally adequate substitute for challenging their detention,” so there is no constitutional problem even if the detainees do have habeas rights, SCOTUSblog reports.

The case is Boumediene v. Bush.