Federal Court Says War Powers Allow Holding Guantánamo Detainees

The federal appeals court for the D.C. circuit ruled Tuesday that not even international law limits war powers that allow the White House to hold suspected terrorists. The case was the first test of the Supreme Court's landmark 2008 ruling that allowed detainees from Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere to challenge their detention in court. If the high court does not reverse the decision, it could apply to all of the Guantánamo cases, which are being heard in the D.C. circuit.

Upholding the decision of a lower court that first heard his case, the appeals panel denied the request of Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani, a former Taliban cook, to be released from Guantánamo. He was captured in 2002 when his paramilitary brigade surrendered, the New York Times reported. Bihani is from Yemen, a nation that has come under intense scrutiny in the last few weeks after reports that it has become an al-Qaeda training ground.

Two of the judges on the panel, Janice Rodgers Brown and Brett M. Kavanaugh, were appointed by George W. Bush and are considered the most conservative on the circuit. The third, Stephen Williams, who did not join in the full opinion, was appointed by President Reagan. In a concurring opinion, he wrote that the government's war powers go beyond even what the government argued in the Bihani case.

In a separate concurrence, Brown wrote, "War is a challenge to law, and the law must adjust."