Judge Orders Bush Administration to Defend Detentions

A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to explain its detention of a Libyan at a U.S. military prison in Cuba by next week, the first such demand since the Supreme Court ruled in June that foreign detainees can use American courts to challenge their confinement. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton set a deadline of next Tuesday for the government to lay out why he should not order the release of Salim Gherebi, who is among nearly 600 men from about 40 countries who have been held with little or no contact with the outside for two years or more. In June, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's claim that the terrorism suspects deemed "enemy combatants" by the president and held in Cuba were not entitled to traditional constitutional protections. But the court did not explain how detainees could bring legal challenges in America. [more]