Naked City

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments April 20 on whether the doctrine of "habeas corpus" applies to the nearly 600 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba. The detainees – deemed "enemy combatants" in the war on terror by the Bush administration – are being held in solitary confinement at the base, many of them for nearly two years, but have not been charged with any crime. According to former U.S. District Judge John Gibbons, who is representing the Guantanamo detainees, under the 1789 Habeas Corpus Act the prisoners have the right to proclaim their innocence and to have a judge determine whether their continued incarceration is justified. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration disagrees, arguing that the executive branch of government, in this case, has the sole authority to label prisoners enemy combatants and deny them all rights that defendants are otherwise afforded by law. Audio recordings of the oral arguments (only the fourth time in history that the high court has released audio of its proceedings) suggest the judges are skeptical of the administration's assertion of unilateral authority over the detainees. "I'm still honestly most worried about the fact that there would be a large category of unchecked and uncheckable actions dealing with the detention of individuals that are being held in a place where America has the power to do everything," said Justice Stephen Breyer. A decision on the case is expected in June.