The New York Times
Ju;y 31, 2004
WASHINGTON, July 30 - The Justice Department said in a federal court filing on Friday that prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who were seeking to file petitions challenging their detentions were not entitled to access to their lawyers to do so.
The department said the prisoners were not entitled to see their lawyers because they were foreigners held outside the jurisdiction of the United States.
The government's 30-page brief argues that despite the 6-to-3 Supreme Court ruling on June 28 that said Guantánamo prisoners could challenge their detentions in federal courts, the prisoners still do not enjoy the rights provided by the Constitution.
"As aliens detained by the military outside the sovereign territory of the United States and lacking a sufficient connection to the country, petitioners have no cognizable constitutional rights," the brief said.
The case involves 14 detainees who were involved in the successful Supreme Court case. Government officials said that they would allow the detainees to see a lawyer although they were not obliged to do so. In the case of three detainees, the government has argued that their conversations must be monitored.
The filing conveys the strong suggestion that despite the Supreme Court's ruling that prisoners should be allowed to file habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions, the Bush administration remains committed to retaining as much control as possible over the detainees.
In response to the ruling, the Pentagon has also begun reviews of the detentions, the first of which was held Friday at Guantánamo. Those proceedings allow detainees to challenge their designations as unlawful enemy combatants, but they are not represented by lawyers.