Supreme Court rules against Bush

The Supreme Court ruled today that the administration lacked the power to hold military war crimes trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the majority opinion, argued that military tribunals have been unconstitutionally concentrated in the executive branch powers usually reserved for the legislature and the judiciary. Yet Congress did not authorize military tribunals for the Guantanamo detainees and the tribunals' procedures violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Military tribunals are unconstitutional because they allowed the president and his subordinates to define the crime, prosecute the case and choose the judges who act as the jury.