The Supreme Court agreed to review whether Guantanamo Bay detainees can use federal courts to challenge their confinement, reversing an April decision not to hear arguments on the issue.
The unusual turnabout was announced without comment from justices who had twice before issued rulings critical of the way the Bush administration was handling detainees. Arguments are expected in the fall.
Meanwhile on Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives said they want to cut President George W. Bush's budget for the prison in half, beating the administration to the punch in shutting down the facility for detainees designated as "enemy combatants."
There was no indication why the justices changed course from three months ago, but lawyers for the prisoners pointed to intervening events as having changed the complexion of the long-running controversy.
A week ago, lawyers for the detainees filed a statement with the Supreme Court from a military officer who alleged US military panels that classified detainees as enemy combatants for the past four years relied on vague and incomplete intelligence.
Under a law the Bush administration pushed through Congress last year, designating detainees as an enemy combatants strips them of any right to use the federal courts to challenge the legality of their detention.
Detainees challenged the law, and their appeal reached the Supreme Court earlier this year. On April 2, the court turned down the detainees' request to be heard.
Five of the nine justices must agree to take a case that previously has been denied a hearing, according to an authoritative text on the Supreme Court. Three members of the court said in April they wanted to step in immediately: Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter. Court observers pointed to a 60-year-old case as the closest parallel to the justices' handling of the detainees latest appeal.
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said that "we did not think that court review at this time was necessary, but we are confident in our legal position."
The operation of Guantanamo Bay has brought global criticism of the Bush administration and condemnation from Democrats in Congress.
The White House says Bush has already decided to close the facility and transfer the more than 370 terrorism suspects elsewhere.
In 2004, the Bush administration hastily created Combatant Status Review Tribunals after the Supreme Court faulted the government for not giving detainees access to courts.
In June last year, the justices ruled that a law passed in 2005 to limit detainees access to US courts did not apply to pending cases.
In response, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, taking away federal court jurisdiction to consider detainees' challenges to their confinement. In February, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the law. That is the decision the Supreme Court declined to review in April and revived on Friday.
After the April decision, the detainees' legal team asked the court to preserve their cases for review at an undetermined later time.
Last month the detainees' lawyers filed a sworn statement from Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Abraham, an Army lawyer who said tribunal members felt pressured to find against the detainees.
He said there was "intensive scrutiny" and when panelists found that a prisoner was not an enemy combatant they were ordered to reconvene to hear more evidence.
His affidavit was the first criticism by a member of the military panels of the process used to determine whether detainees will continue to be held.
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