Gitmo Lawyers to Stay in Business

A major decision on Gitmo detainees today:

Guantanamo Bay detainees may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling upholding a key provision of a law at the center of President Bush's anti-terrorism plan.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that civilian courts no longer have the authority to consider whether the military is illegally holding foreigners.Barring detainees from the U.S. court system was a key provision in the Military Commissions Act, which Bush pushed through Congress last year to set up a system to prosecute terrorism suspects.

Reason has been all over this evolving debate; see Jacob Sullum on Jose Padilla back in 2002 all the way to Radley Balko last month. And check out our 2001 roundtable on how 9/11 would change settled civil liberties protections, including experts from Clint Bolick and Glenn Reynolds to Nadine Strossen and Nat Hentoff.