From The Boston Globe
By Charlie Savage

The Supreme Court yesterday delivered a sweeping rebuke to President Bush’s policies for handling prisoners captured in the war on terrorism, ruling that the administration’s system for trying Guantanamo detainees for war crimes before a military commission is illegal.

In one of the most important rulings on presidential powers after Sept. 11, 2001, the court voted, 5 to 3, to shut down the military commission that has been trying Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni held at Guantanamo who is accused of being a bodyguard and driver for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The court said the commission Bush established to try prisoners on terrorism charges does not meet the standards of fairness required by the military code of justice and the Geneva Conventions and is thus illegal.
“In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive is bound to comply with the rule of law,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

Bush had sought to limit the rights given to the detainees, saying that as president in a time of war he could handle such cases as he saw fit. He established the commissions by executive order in November 2001 without consulting Congress.

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