Court rules against Guant

A federal appeals court today handed the Bush administration a major victory in the legal battle over how terror suspects may be held and tried, as a three-judge panel ruled that detainees held at the infamous Guantánamo Bay prison may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts.

Today's decision grows out of the Military Commissions Act, which Congress passed this fall in response to a recent Supreme Court decision striking down some of the administration's rules for detainees. One section of that act specifically denied detainees access to the U.S. court system.

It is expected that today's ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court, which, as the Los Angeles Times noted today, is increasingly under the influence of controversial Justice Antonin Scalia.