Court grants new detainee case (Oct. 20, 2009)

The Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the power of federal judges to order prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay.

Last October, a U.S. district judge ordered the Bush administration to release 17 Uighurs detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, ruling that the Constitution forbids their indefinite detention without cause.

Judge Ricardo Urbina rejected arguments by President Bush's Justice Department that the court could not require the Uighurs' release without violating the doctrine of separation of powers. He further ordered immigration authorities not to take the Uighurs into custody upon their arrival in the U.S.

In February, a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Urbina's order, finding that only the executive branch can make such immigration decisions about bringing members of the Uighur ethnic group into the United States.

"It is not within the province of any court, unless expressly authorized by law, to review the determination of the political branch of the government to exclude a given alien," the majority on the 2-1 panel held. "With respect to these seventeen petitioners, the Executive Branch has determined not to allow them to enter the United States.”

The Obama administration had opposed the appeal and urged the justices to reject it.

But on Oct. 20, 2009, the Supreme Court decided to take the case.

This is the first war-on-terrorism case to come before the high court during the Obama administration and also the first such case that will be heard by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Oral arguments in the case are likely to be heard in February or March.

Question presented: Whether a federal court exercising its habeas jurisdiction, as confirmed by Boumediene v. Bush has no power to order the release of prisoners held by the Executive for seven years, when the Executive detention is indefinite and without authorization in law, and release into the continental United States is the only possible effective remedy.