The Guantanamo Bay detainees lost a lawsuit challenging their confinement Tuesday in the D.C. Court of Appeals, which ruled that the U.S. has no legal jurisdiction over the naval base in Cuba.

The three-judge panel said that the 16 detainees at Guantánamo who brought the lawsuit had no recourse to American courts as they had never entered United States territory.

Today's ruling was another in a series from the courts, several of them favorable to the administration, as the government's aggressive techniques in the fight against terrorism are being challenged on a wide front in the federal judiciary.

The 16 plaintiffs, through their lawyers, had argued that because the United States controls the 45-square-mile base on the southeastern tip of Cuba, it had sovereignty over the base.

But the judges disagreed and upheld the decision of a federal trial judge last summer.

While the lawyers argued that Guantánamo "is in essence a territory of the United States," the judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that was not so in strict legal terms. "Cuba — not the United States — has sovereignty over Guantánamo Bay," the panel said, citing the lease agreement between Cuba and United States that explicitly reserves sovereignty to Havana.

For that reason, the judges said, the prisoners "cannot seek release based on violations of the Constitution or treaties or federal law; the courts are not open to them."

Update: Today's New York Times Editorial,

Forsaken at Guantánamo In refusing to let the Guantánamo detainees challenge their confinement, the administration is trampling on their rights. It is also damaging America's reputation for fairness. The administration should rethink its policies, and the Supreme Court should reverse yesterday's unfortunate decision.