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"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 law might have been considered an (unconstitutional) ex-post-facto law if applied to detainees who had already initiated legal proceedings. But I thought there was precedent for military tribunals going all the way back through our history. Several posters have referred to military tribunals initiated by FDR - for acts occurring on U.S. soil - and approved by the USSC. What did this court have to say about that?

Not sure. Understand that the DOJ and/or Gonzales will have a briefing later today. Hopefully will have some answers. Listening to Tony Snow and like was said before, Congress now has the obligation to write a law on how to try these terrorists. Also, these guys are not getting released or Gitmo will not be closed. So will wait and see. Also you will note that a lot of decisions were 4-4 and all the judges had something to say such as Alito liked some opinions but not others. So I'm sure it will take some time to figure it all. Final note: the SCOTUS did not say we can't try them, just didn't approve of the military tribunal way.