WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- President Obama on Friday resumed -- with expanded legal protections -- the Bush administration 's controversial system of military trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees . President Obama says the commissions are OK , `` provided that they are properly structured and administered . '' On the heels of Obama 's shift this week to block the release of photos showing prisoners allegedly being abused by U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan , the military commissions announcement further infuriated the president 's most ardent supporters while winning cautionary praise from some of his political foes . Obama said he supports the idea of the military commissions but opposes the version of the law that had been governing such trials in recent years : the Military Commissions Act put in place under the Bush administration in 2006 , but subsequently struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court . The president said military commissions `` are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war , provided that they are properly structured and administered . '' But , he said , the 2006 act `` failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capability to ensure swift and certain justice against those detainees . '' He said he plans to enhance due process rights for detainees held at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , in order to improve the widely criticized approach created by his predecessor . Statements that have been obtained from detainees through interrogation and cruel treatment , such as waterboarding , will no longer be admitted as evidence before the commissions , Obama said , and hearsay evidence will be limited . The revised system also will give detainees greater latitude in selecting legal representation and afford basic protections to those who refuse to testify . Military commission judges also will be able to establish the jurisdiction of their own courts . `` These reforms will begin to restore the commissions as a legitimate forum for prosecution , while bringing them in line with the rule of law , '' Obama said . He said he plans to ask Congress to enact other reforms to the 2006 law . Sen. John McCain , R-Arizona , applauded his former opponent . `` Today 's announcement is a step -- but only a step -- toward a comprehensive detainee policy that will deal with the detainees held at Guantanamo and elsewhere in a fashion that both accords with our values and protects our national security , '' McCain said in a written statement . But Obama 's announcement infuriated some of his core supporters -- with the revisions hardly calming the concerns of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union . The ACLU chided the military commission decision as `` a striking blow to due process and the rule of law . '' `` These military commissions are inherently illegitimate , unconstitutional and incapable of delivering outcomes we can trust , '' said Anthony D. Romero , the group 's executive director . `` Tweaking the rules of these failed tribunals so that they provide 'more due process ' is absurd ; there is no such thing as 'due process light . ' `` he said . `` If the administration 's proposed rules really bring these proceedings in line with constitutional requirements , there is no reason not to use our tried and true justice system . If they do n't , these tribunals have no place in our democracy . '' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs countered that military commissions have a long history in the United States . `` First and foremost , the president of the United States is going to do what he believes is in the best security interest of the people of the United States , '' Gibbs told reporters . Obama suspended the military commissions by signing an executive order on his third day in office , the same day he signed an order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo within a year and announced a 120-day review of the whole process . The review deadline is next week . Gibbs said he does not know where and how trials for alleged terrorists will unfold on American soil . Nor did he disclose how many suspects would face legal proceedings under the revised commissions . Three Guantanamo detainees ' cases have gone through the commission so far . The Bush administration established the military trial system after the U.S. military began capturing detainees in Afghanistan in late 2001 . The next year , it opened the Guantanamo facility , saying suspects were treated properly and received due process through the system . But legal organizations and human rights agencies have repeatedly challenged the system on grounds that detainees were mistreated . One lawyer representing a client at Guantanamo said closing the detention facility , which Obama is advocating , is a `` meaningless gesture '' if the military commissions continue . `` The military commissions are fundamentally flawed and ca n't be fixed , '' said Army Maj. Jon S. Jackson , a lawyer for Mustafa al-Hawsawi , one of five 9/11 defendants charged in the military commission process . Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks , is the most high-profile of those defendants .
Obama - Bush system that was suspended in 2008 . New system to ensure expanded due - process rights for the poor , Obama says . ACLU will ' ` ` a striking end to due process and the rule of law ''