Appeals Court: Let the Military Tribunals Begin
In a blow to the Constitution but giving a win to the Bush Administration, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver, can be tried by military tribunal at Guantanamo. The opinion is here.(pdf.)
The decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reversed a lower court's ruling that abruptly halted the first war crimes trials conducted by the United States since the aftermath of World War II. The appeals judges said the Bush administration's plan to try some detainees before military commissions did not violate the Constitution, international law or American military law.
One of his lawyers says,
"Today's ruling... "places absolute trust in the president, unchecked by the Constitution, statutes of Congress and longstanding treaties ratified by the Senate of the United States."
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