5-4 Majority In Boumediene v. Bush

On Friday the United States Supreme Court ruled on a case before it on Guantanamo titled Boumediene v. Bush (PDF file). This ruling on the habeas corpus rights of "enemy combatants" held at Gitmo, insures that we are a country where people know they have rights. If those rights want to be denied, by government or by others, the ruling will be made in a court, a civilian court at that, which allows for an open system, which is in the end, separate from any political branch of the government.

As Justice Souter said, it has now been "four years from the time Rasul [v. Bush] put everyone on notice that habeas corpus was available to Guantanamo prisoners." This has allowed for as much time as needed for these to begin to work there way through the courts system, but sadly, as Justice Souter further states that "some of the prisoners represented here today [have] been locked up for six years." This comes in contrast to the main point against this case that it is pushing the justice system onto the actions of the military, which can handle these claims in a reasonable time period.

But six years of detention, and four years after a US Supreme Court case establishing the knowledge for all that habeas corpus was there for these people, is much too long to NOT rule on this case, thus the justice system, and even the Supreme Court has every right to step in and insure that everyone is protected! Although Justice Scalia claims that this case is "invoking judicially brainstormed separation-of-powers principles to establish a manipulable 'functional' test," it is just not so, and that the principles which this is based off of is held to the American people's standard of freedom, equality, and every other basic principle which every school child is taught in elementary school, and is supported by a majority of the United States Supreme Court.