The Bush Administration is pressing the Supreme Court to accept review in an important alien detention case.

The Sixth Circuit, following Supreme Court precedent in Zadvydas v. Davis, ruled that the Government cannot indefinitely detain excludable or deportable aliens whose countries do not want them back.

The current case is Snyder v. Rosales-Garcia. The Government argues that the ruling in Zadvydas does not apply to aliens already in this country, as opposed to aliens trying to enter the U.S.

The Sixth Circuit, en banc, disagreed,

...finding that "excludable aliens -- like all aliens -- are clearly protected by the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments."

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, writing for a 6-3 majority, added, "If excludable aliens were not protected by even the substantive component of constitutional due process, as the government appears to argue, we do not see why the United States could not torture or summarily execute them."

We agree with the Sixth Circuit. We have always appreciated the Court's ruling in Zadvydas that:

... the Due Process Clause applies to all "persons" within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent.

The Supreme Court will decide Thursday whether to accept review of the case.