Court to Decide Future of Detainees' Suits

[Judi Lynn]

Court to Decide Future of Detainees' Suits
By TONI LOCY, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

(03-22) 09:42 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

A federal appellate court pressed the Bush administration Wednesday to say how much authority judges have in examining hundreds of claims by detainees challenging the legality of their detentions at Guantanamo Bay.

The three-judge panel is being asked to decide whether the Detainee Treatment Act, signed by President Bush on Dec. 30, retroactively voids hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of detainees by abolishing a right to challenge detentions that has been part of the United States' legal principles since the nation's founding.

Judges David B. Sentelle and A. Raymond Randolph seemed willing to accept the administration's view that the act forces dismissal of more than 200 lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court here on behalf of over 300 detainees.

But all three judges weren't buying the administration's take on what would happen next.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/22/national/w094200S01.DTL