Justices Asked to Rule on Detainees

The Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to consider whether the Bush administration has violated the Constitution by holding hundreds of terrorist suspects in Cuba without charges or access to attorneys.

The appeal was being filed on behalf of some detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, and their families.

The government is interrogating the prisoners, who were captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere, before determining whether they should be sent back to their homelands or face military tribunals. They are suspected of having ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist network or Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime.

Without court oversight, the government could abuse the inmates, the Supreme Court was told in the appeal, “or it may simply forget them, in the vain hope the world will as well.”

The Bush administration “needs to hear from the courts, and the courts should not duck their responsibility under the Constitution to control executive actions that are outside the Constitution,” said Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the detainees.

An appeals court in Washington ruled earlier this year that the inmates have no rights to hearings in American courts, or other constitutional protections, because they are aliens held outside U.S. territory. The military has said the interrogations are yielding important intelligence tips.

President Bush has recommended that six of the detainees, including Australian David Hicks, be the first to face tribunals established for the global war on terrorism.

Hicks is one of the four inmates named in the case that would affect the rights of all 660 detainees. He was captured while allegedly fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Many of the inmates have spent 18 months in confinement, without seeing their families or lawyers, at the Guantanamo prison, the Supreme Court was told. They are unaware of the case filed on their behalf.

Detainees from 42 countries are being held at the prison, and military officials have said more than 30 inmates have attempted suicide.

Justices will likely announce this fall whether they will consider the case. The Supreme Court has already rejected one appeal involving the detentions, filed by clergy, lawyers and others.

The administration has about a month to file a response at the high court, if it chooses to.