High court hears Gitmo rights case

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument Wednesday on whether foreign "enemy combatants" can ask the U.S. courts to review their cases.

The high court ruled in 2004's Rasul vs. Bush that under U.S. law, U.S. courts had jurisdiction over foreign detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but the 2006 Military Commission Act in effect reversed that ruling.

The MCA in part took away the detainees' right to "habeas corpus" -- to access the courts for review -- and gave military commissions jurisdiction.

Former Clinton Solicitor General Seth Waxman, representing 37 of the 305 Guantanamo detainees, told the court Wednesday that for six years none of the prisoners "has had meaningful notice of the grounds for detention," or the ability to present evidence.

Waxman argued that the habeas writ, called the Great Writ in British and U.S. common law, held sway in any place subject to the U.S. government, and did not depend on sovereignty. He cited Acts of Parliament in 1777 and 1783 extending the writ to U.S. sailors taken on the high seas.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing the Bush administration, said the 2005 Detainee Act, which removed Guantanamo habeas corpus cases from the Washington federal courts to the military commission, did not prevent federal courts in Washington from ordering the release of a prisoner under procedural, not constitutional, grounds.

The DTA was an adequate substitute for habeas, he argued.

The court should rule before the summer recess.