ACLU cheers court's Gitmo review

WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union applauded a U.S. Supreme Court decision to review an appeal by Guantanamo detainees.

The inmates at the detention facility for suspects in the war on terror at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "are seeking the right to challenge the legality of their detention in federal court. The court had previously declined to hear the appeal in April, but reversed course in an order issued (Friday) on the final day of the Supreme Court term," the ACLU said.

"Today's action by the Supreme Court is yet another sign of growing concern with the Bush administration's failed Guantanamo policy," said ACLU Legal Director Steven Shapiro.

"Even those who participated in that policy are now openly criticizing it," Shapiro said. "Having already lost three times in the Supreme Court, the administration continues to argue that it has the right to detain hundreds of people at Guantanamo indefinitely without any meaningful judicial review. The time has come for the Supreme Court to put an end to this system of injustice."

The Bush administration maintains that it needs the Guantanamo Bay facility as an essential measure in the war on terror. And conservative supporters of the administration have argued that if Guantanamo inmates are transferred to holding faculties scattered across the United States, it will vastly increase the strain on U.S. security as terror groups might seek to try and free many of them.