Guantanamo legal gridlock: a year later, detainees' appeals stalled.

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http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/12018437.htm

A year later, ruling stalled for Guantanamo inmates

By Frank Davies
Philadelphia Inquirer Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON - One year ago, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that allowed more than 500 prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to challenge their captivity.

But 200 detainees, including some held more than three years, who have filed habeas corpus petitions in federal court have not gotten far. After months of procedural battles, no judge has heard the merits of a single Guantanamo case.

As controversy mounts over the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, and the Bush administration argues that prisoners can be held indefinitely without being charged, even some Republican senators have called for a faster resolution of the cases.

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A habeas corpus petition, in which a prisoner claims to be improperly jailed, "is supposed to get fast-track consideration because personal liberty is an urgent issue," said Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice. But that has not happened.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which helped organize 400 lawyers to represent detainees, has had little lasting success in the year since the Supreme Court's ruling required hearings on the detentions. "We've had some strong rulings in our favor on one hand, and then they're taken away on the other hand," said Michael Ratner, president of the center.

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