US Supreme Court Rules against Bush in Guantanamo case as Impeachment roll's on

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have the right to go before U.S. federal judges to challenge their years-long detention, handing a stinging setback to the Bush administration.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court overturned a ruling that upheld a law President George W. Bush pushed through the Republican-led Congress in 2006 that took away the habeas corpus rights of the terrorism suspects to seek full judicial review of their detention.

"We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court majority in the 70-page opinion.

He said that Congress had failed to create an adequate alternative for the prisoners held at the U.S. military base in Cuba to contest their detention.

The 2006 law allowed for a limited review by a U.S. appeals court in Washington of the military's designation of the prisoners as an "enemy combatant," but took away their right to a hearing before a U.S. district court judge to challenge their confinement.

Kennedy said the court did not address whether Bush has the authority to detain the prisoners.