SUPREME COURT Panel's refusal on case offers sign about terrorism suspects

The Bush administration wants an appeals court to decide the case quickly.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to take up immediately a case that could decide whether suspected terrorists can be tried by military commissions.
The case of Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a former driver for Osama bin Laden who faces war crimes charges, is a likely candidate for the high court eventually, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will handle the case first.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled Nov. 8 against the military commissions, saying they didn't provide enough legal protections for suspects. The commissions use military officers as judge and jury and their verdicts can't be appealed to an independent judiciary. Judge Robinson's ruling halted a controversial system, last used in World War II, that the Bush administration said was an important weapon in the war on terror.
The high court's refusal to take the Hamdan case immediately means that military commissions will likely remain on hold for months. The appeals court scheduled oral arguments for March 8.
"The March date changes the dynamics, because there is no way, without a special session, that the Supreme Court would then hear the case this term," said Neal Katyal, an attorney for Hamdan. The Supreme Court's term ends in June. Katyal hopes the court will reconsider its decision in January and decide to take the case.
Criticism
The Bush administration had opposed the high court's immediately taking the case but urged the appeals court to decide quickly, criticizing Judge Robertson's ruling as a "judicial intrusion" into a president's wartime powers.
Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, and three other detainees at Guantanamo face war crimes charges under the military's commission system. About nine other detainees are under consideration for war crimes prosecution.
Delays and controversy have plagued military commissions since President Bush signed the order to create them in November 2001. British officials and other allies have sharply criticized the system.
Last week, 186 members of the British Parliament and 84 members of the European Parliament asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case quickly because of its importance.
"Until there is a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of the military commission process, the legitimacy of that process will continue to be called into question, as will the perceived and actual commitment of the United States to the rule of law," the parliament members wrote in a brief to the court.