"Activist" judge rules against U.S. Government

A U.S. judge ruled that a group of suspected terrorists held at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can challenge their detention in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green rejected a request by the Bush administration to throw out lawsuits by 54 detainees protesting their imprisonment. Green said tribunals set up by the Pentagon to test whether the prisoners are "enemy combatants" violate the U.S. Constitution and in some cases the Geneva Conventions, which govern treatment of prisoners of war.

"It would be far easier for the government to prosecute the war on terrorism if it could imprison all suspected `enemy combatants' at Guantanamo Bay without having to acknowledge and respect any constitutional rights of detainees," Green wrote. "That, however, is not the relevant legal test."
  Bloomberg article