'Enemy Combatants' Finally Before Supreme Court

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0427-02.htm

Published on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 by the Inter Press Service

'Enemy Combatants' Finally Before Supreme Court

After two years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court is finally set to decide whether the executive branch of the U.S. government may detain alleged ''enemy combatants'' indefinitely without any judicial review of their status.

by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Three cases -- one of them argued before the nation's highest court last week and the other two due to be presented here Wednesday -- will determine the extent of U.S. presidential power to detain both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the ''war on terrorism''.

Dozens of independent groups -- including human rights and relief organizations, former prisoners-of-war and legal associations -- have filed ''friend of the court'' briefs, most of them opposed to the government's position.

While the nine-judge court will not issue its ruling until later this spring, civil-liberties advocates are hopeful that a majority of justices will insist that the executive branch cannot prevent detainees from gaining access to federal courts to determine whether the government has sufficient grounds for their detention.

''It seems four of the justices are strongly on the side of detainees (held) at the U.S.' Guantanamo (Bay naval base in Cuba) on the question of whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction'', according to Deborah Pearlstein, director of the U.S. law and security program at Human Rights First (HRF), formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

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1. kick... today is the day