The Bush administration won a victory today in the first case to construe the Military Commission Act of 2006, when a Clinton-appointed Federal judge agreed with the government that Guantanamo detainees have no right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts.
Hamdan was the Republican-dominated Supreme Court's rebuke of the Bush administration last June: It struck down the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, held that the Bush administration lacked the authority to set up war crimes tribunals, and held that the military commissions at Guantanamo were illegal under U.S. military law and the Geneva Conventions.
Today, Judge James Robertson, a former civil rights litigator, upheld parts of the MCA stripping Federal courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus suits by Guantanamo detainees.
According to analysis here (links thanks to law blog How Appealing), Judge Robertson's memorandum opinion can be understood to hold part of the MCA an unconstitutional suspension of habeas, within the meaning of "the Suspension Clause," Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution.
But the bottom line is that today's ruling validates the MCA as a powerful weapon stripping courts of jurisdiction and Guantanamo detainees of rights.
Judge Robertson is no right-wing hack, which makes the Bush administration's victory more striking. Last month, he made headlines by agreeing with advocates for the blind that U.S. currency violates the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and should be changed.
What's next? Mr. Hamdan's lawyers will appeal to the D.C. circuit court of appeals. This was the circuit that, in July 2005, overturned Judge Roberts — when he ruled in Hamdan's favor the first time around.