[Steve_Seattle]

"Congress has denied the President the legislative auhority to create military commissions of the kind at issue here."

When did Congress do that?

[mware]

I heard Lindsey Gramm on the television a few minutes ago.

He is going to bring forward a bill before Congress that will permit the terrorist at Gitmo to be tried before a military tribunal.

According to what I have heard SCOTUS said that if Congress okays it, then it would be legal.

Apparently Lindsey tried over a year ago to get it passed through Congress but it failed at some stage.

[bobsunshine]

From what I understand, the law that was passed last year was for only future detainees or those not charged yet. This case was for someone charged, by which there was no law. Per the ruling (emphasis mine):

The jurisdictional part of the decision interpreted the Detainee Treatment Act, passed by Congress late last year to curtail court authority to rule on Guantanamo cases. The Court interpreted that law as not applying to cases already pending. That would appear to preserve the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts to proceed to decide other detainee challenges to their prolonged detention, just as the Supreme Court could proceed to decide the validity of the commissions to try those detainees who have been charged with war crimes. Ten such individuals have been charged.

[bobsunshine]

Forget this section of the ruling:

Four Justices concluded that Salim Ahmed Hamdan could not be charged with conspiracy before a military commission, but that did not have majority support, so its binding effect is uncertain