U.S. Supreme Court Bars Bush's Military Tribunals

June 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration lacks authority to try Guantanamo Bay inmates before military tribunals in a ruling that sharply scales back presidential wartime powers.

The justices, voting 5-3, said Congress hadn't expressly authorized the commissions. The justices also said the structure and procedures of the tribunals violate both the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The ruling is a major political and legal setback for President George W. Bush, scuttling plans to try three dozen Guantanamo inmates before tribunals. The ruling also boosts suits challenging the incarceration of hundreds of other detainees.

Today's ruling was a victory for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden who is fighting a government charge of conspiracy.

``In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction,'' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court.

The U.S. is holding 450 inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, most of them captured in Afghanistan during the 2001 war against the Taliban. Bush is facing increasing international pressure over Guantanamo in the aftermath of three inmate suicides earlier this month. The president has said on several occasions that he would like to close the prison.

Joining Stevens's wrote the court's majority opinion in Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer joined the entirety of the opinion, and Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the bulk of it.

Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Chief Justice John G. Roberts didn't take part in the case because he served on an appeals court panel that considered it.

The majority also rejected a Bush administration argument that a new federal law stripped the court of power to hear the case.

The case is Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 05-184.