In a somewhat surprising move, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the Hamdan case that concerns the legality of the Guantanamo military tribunals. The lower court opinion is here. Here are the Questions Presented in the cert petition:

  1. Whether the military commission established by the President to try petitioner and others similarly situated for alleged war crimes in the "war on terror" is duly authorized under Congress's Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), Pub. L. No. 10740, 115 Stat. 224; the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ); or the inherent powers of the President?

  2. Whether petitioner and others similarly situated can obtain judicial enforcement from an Article III court of rights protected under the 1949 Geneva Convention in an action for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the legality of their detention by the Executive branch?

  This is an important development; Hamdan will now be "the big case" of the new Supreme Court term. If I had to guess, I would guess that the Court will reverse.

  UPDATE: According to Lyle Denniston's post over at SCOTUSblog, Chief Justice Roberts "told the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was nominated that he would recuse himself from cases in which he had participated as a judge on the D.C. Circuit." Assuming that Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Stevens, and Souter would like to reverse the outcome in Hamdan, the recusal of Roberts (a likely vote for the government) makes that outcome more likely.