In a stinging rebuke to President George W. Bush's anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to appeal to US civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges. By a vote of five to four, the court found that even if the base was officially on Cuban territory, it was in fact operating as if it were on American soil and therefore the detainees have the same constitutional rights as all people living in the United States. Bush said he strongly disagreed with the decision – the third time the court has repudiated him on the detainees – and suggested he might seek yet another law to keep terror suspects locked up at the prison camp, even as his presidency winds down. Thursday's ruling should now force the detainees and their legal teams to demand that the government unveil the body of evidence against them to justify their continued detention. The government has refused to do this arguing it would be against the interests of national security. It should also open the doors of the federal court system to the 270 people still held in the isolated base. Detainees have long protested that they had been mistreated, and have questioned the very legality of the Guantanamo military tribunals. Bush has argued the detentions are needed to protect the US in a time of unprecedented threats from terrorist groups. He said he would consider whether to seek new laws in light of the ruling. – Agencies “so we can safely say to the American people, ‘We're doing everything we can to protect you.”'
