Supreme Court to hear first anti-terror case

? The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear its first case arising from the war on terrorism, an appeal asking whether foreigners held at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba may contest their captivity in American courts.

The case concerns more than 650 prisoners held essentially incommunicado at Guantanamo Bay. The Bush administration maintains that because the men were picked up overseas on suspicion of terrorism and are being held on foreign land they may be detained indefinitely without charges or trial.

The men, mostly Muslims, have no access to lawyers or other outsiders, and do not even know they are the subject of the case the court agreed to hear, according to lawyers who have taken up their cause. Some among them may eventually be tried before military tribunals, but the administration has not said when. How the court rules could affect those plans.

The detentions are part of a global campaign against terrorism that has outraged civil liberties groups and left some U.S. allies grumbling. The administration has gained expanded powers to investigate and detain people suspected of terrorist links, has reorganized the way the government defends U.S. borders and has increased security at airports and other ports of entry.

The Supreme Court passed up several earlier opportunities to hear terrorism cases.

In the Guantanamo case, the justices limited their review to the narrow but significant question of access to U.S. courts. The case concerns only Guantanamo detainees, most of whom were picked up during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, although the United States holds prisoners in numerous other places overseas.

Lawyers for the Guantanamo detainees had raised broad civil liberties objections to their detention and treatment, but the high court declined to look at those issues. The men could presumably renew those challenges if they win this case.