The administration of US President George W. Bush was to defend its indefinite detentions of foreign terror suspects, some for almost six years, at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before the US Supreme Court yesterday.
At issue is whether the right to contest detention in US civilian courts, promised in the US Constitution, extends to the 305 men being held at Guantanamo as "enemy combatants."
The court heard arguments yesterday in a highly anticipated case. It is the third time since 2004 that the Supreme Court has examined the administration's controversial detention program.
The justices have ruled against the administration in the two earlier cases.
Lawyers for the foreign detainees argue that the courts must step in to rein in the White House and Congress, which changed the law to keep the detainee cases out of US courts after earlier Supreme Court rulings. Last year's Military Commissions Act, strips federal courts of their ability to hear detainee cases.
Seth Waxman, the top Supreme Court lawyer in former president Bill Clinton's administration, is representing the detainees. "After six years of imprisonment without meaningful review, it is time for a court to decide the legality" of their confinement, Waxman said.
Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing the administration, said foreigners captured and held outside the US "have no constitutional rights to petition our courts for a writ of habeas corpus," which is a judicial determination of the legality of detention.
The US has no plans to put most of those held at Guantanamo on trial. Just three detainees face charges under the Military Commissions Act.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS