Newsday.com

Stateless Persons

Prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba are being held outside of the protection of justice in a "lawless enclave". Over 600 men from 44 countries are being held without charge or access to American Courts.

Attorney John Gibbons said "it's been plain for 215 years" that people in federal detention may file petitions in U.S. courts.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist noted that the detainees are not on American soil, and asked how a judge in Washington is to deal with a case from Cuba.

Without U.S. judges overseeing due process, there would be no checks and balances on the president's power at Guatanamo, Justice Stephen Breyer commented. This open the way for Solicitor General Theodore Olson to claim it would be "remarkable" for the judiciary to start deciding where the U.S. could assert temporary control over foreign terroritory, such as military bases.

Should the President be empowered to conduct war outside of the agreed conventions of war? Actions that are external to the protection of law are properly deemed criminal. Leaving 600 people in this kind of confinement could not happen on U.S. soil and stopping this kind of executive justice is a justification for toppling dictators like Saddam Hussein.