U. S. Supreme Count punts on Gitmo cases -- for now.

The U. S. Supreme Court has, to borrow a football analogy, punted on first down on two Guantanamo (Gitmo) cases. The twin cases, Al Odah v. United States of America, 06-1196, and Boumediene v. Bush, 06-1195, were filed on behalf of some of the roughly 385 prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba as "enemy combatants" for more than five years. Last year, the Supreme Court rulings extended legal protection to them. At issue in the present cases is whether these "detainees" have a constitutional right to habeas corpus review (enabling them to challenge their detention) or whether any habeas corpus relief was stripped by the Congress when it passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA) which denied the Federal Courts jurisdiction in the "detainee" cases. The U. S. Supreme Court denied Petitions for Certiorari -- in effect declining to review the decision of the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld the MCA. While it is clear some of the clear majority of the Court wanted to review the MCA (possibly with a view to finding it unconstitutional), others rejected the appeal on purely procedural or tactical grounds. It is, therefore, apparent to me that once the "procedure" is dispensed with, the Court may have to re-visit the issue. Whether or not it has a chance to do so, will depend on the success of Congress acting to repeal the habeas corpus stripping feature of MCA. As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has stated, while urging the passage of legislation he introduced with the panel's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter, (R-Pa), to restore detainee access to the courts: "Congress cannot sit back and wait for the courts to fix this problem."
But Congress may not be the only one with power to act; Bush may veto such a bill -- since the White House, "..., on first glance, [is] very pleased with the decision," according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino -- and Congress may not have enough votes for an override.