U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (who is also hearing the DOJ vs. Microsoft case) ruled today that the detainees at Guantanamo have no rights under US law, and that the US judiciary has no jurisdiction over what happens on the base. (I wonder what would happen if a spouse of a serving naval officer murdered the naval officer - the spouse couldn't be tried by military courts - would they turn the spouse over to the Cuban government for trial?) .
The ruling is summarized in a WP article. The bottom line is that the executive branch is free to do what they will with the prisoners on Cuba. No judge wants to challenge a supposedly popular president in wartime, but this is very disappointing.
On a less important note, it also bodes poorly for the result of the States vs. Microsoft and the DOJ remedy hearings.
Posted by Geodog at August 1, 2002 02:07 AM | TrackBackMy apologies, but my web hoster has turned off commenting, due to a flood of obscene spam bringing the server to its knees. I hope to have this weblog transitioned over to Wordpress in the near future, so that I can have commenting up and working again. Until then, please feel free to send me your comments via my email contact form.. Please ignore everything below this comment.