WASHINGTON – Lawyers for a Guantanamo detainee asked the Supreme Court on Monday to consider blocking military tribunals for terror suspects, and overturn what they called an extreme ruling by high-court nominee John Roberts (search).
Roberts was on a three-judge federal appeals court panel that last month ruled against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who once was Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden&apos;s (search) driver.
The Pentagon maintains it has the authority to hold military commissions, or tribunals, for terror suspects like Hamdan who were captured overseas and are now being held at Guantanamo Bay (search), Cuba.
A lower-court judge ruled against the government, but Roberts and two other judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed. That opinion was written by Judge A. Raymond Randolph, who was named to the court by the first President Bush.
The ruling was handed down shortly before Roberts was named to the Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O&apos;Connor (search).
The appeals court said last month that the 1949 Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war does not apply to the Al Qaeda network and its members.
Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, denies conspiring to engage in acts of terrorism and denies he was a member of Al Qaeda.