Bush's war role at issue

Supreme Court to review scope of president's powers

By CHARLES LANE

The Washington Post


WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to rule on the legality of the Bush administration's military tribunals for accused terrorists.

The case sets up what could be one of the most significant rulings on presidential war powers since the end of World War II.

President Bush has claimed broad power to conduct the war against al-Qaida and said questions about the detention of suspected terrorists, their interrogation, trial and punishment are matters for him to decide as commander in chief.

But the court's announcement that it would hear the case of Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, shows that the justices feel the judicial branch also has a role to play. The court has focused on whether Bush has the power to set up the commissions and whether detainees facing military trials can go to court in the United States to secure the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions.

The justices have chosen to intervene at a sensitive time for the Bush administration. The Senate is mounting its first sustained challenge to the administration's claim that it alone can determine what interrogation methods are proper for terror detainees. The United States has come under fire after disclosures that the CIA has interrogated suspects at secret "black sites" in Eastern Europe.

All of that will be in the background as the justices consider a case that will turn on their view of whether the other branches of government can and should permit the executive branch to make all the rules in the battle against al-Qaida.

(Kansas City press, this date)