U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that prisoners held abroad by the United States, including detainees at Guantanamo Bay, are protected by international law, blocking plans by the American president to try those prisoners, could serve as a curb for George W. Bush’s wide-ranging wartime powers.

By ruling on the final day of its 2005-06 term that Bush doesn’t have the authority from Congress to set up military tribunals for suspects his administration holds at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, America's highest court is reminding Mr. Bush that his authority is not above the law, The Sydney Morning Herald wrote.

The court ruling came as the most stunning defeat to the American president, given the current pressure he’s already facing at home and globally for the quagmire going in Iraq, the numerous scandals uncovered involving the U.S. troops’ conduct there and the worldwide concern over the treatment of detainees held in U.S.-run jails in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Facing the media after meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, Bush tried to act as if nothing has happened, claiming that he took the ruling "very seriously" and that he wanted to assure Americans that "I will protect them and, at the same time, conform with the findings".

"To the extent that there is latitude to work with the Congress to determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which to give people their day in court, we will do so," Bush said. "The American people need to know that the ruling, as I understand it, won't cause killers to be put out on the street." Asked whether Guantanamo would be closed, Bush said:

"I wish I could have given you a better answer," trying to avoid being asked another question on the issue.

The court’s decision was a strong slap in Bush’s face.

Bush’s administration seemed assured over the past few months that the court would rule in its favor in a case involving Salim Ahmed, a Yemeni accused of being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and driver between 1996 and 2001 - a period the U.S. says Al Qaeda chief was plotting for Sept. 11 attacks.

The court ruling was a great shock to the administration officials.

It was also a major blow to the Administration’s efforts to expand Bush’s powers to facilitate any decision he deems necessary without having to return to Congress, especially regarding his so-called “war on terrorism”.

According to the court ruling, even in wartime, Bush is not allowed to bypass international conventions, or take any decision without congressional approval. The court also ruled that any laws passed by Congress should be respected by the president even if the U.S. is at war with any enemy, including Al Qaeda.

The Bush administration - and the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, had been trying in several ways to ignore the Congress in many issues related to their alleged campaign aimed at rooting out terrorism.

And part of Bush’s "anti-terror" campaign, Guantanamo Bay prison was established by the Pentagon on the advice of White House lawyers and a few Justice Department officials, without getting a congressional approval.

The U.S. President, Cheney and the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, have long been arguing that the tribunals set to try Guantanamo prisoners were legal and offered "illegal combatants" a measure of justice that terrorists did not extend to their victims and captives.

Bush have long sought to rebuild the powers of the presidency, curbed following Richard Nixon’s era.

71 per cent of Americans believe Guantanamo detainees should be given prisoner-of-war status or charged officially, a recent poll showed.

Only 25 per cent supported the Administration's labeling of prisoners as “enemy combatants and holding them indefinitely,” according to the same poll.

The court decision will surely fuel the anger of the American public, already skeptic over the way the current U.S. government, led by President Bush, is handling the country.

The Supreme Court ruling is expected to help Guantanamo detainees who have been labeled enemy combatants by special military review panels at Guantanamo, approving their indefinite detention, but have not been charged with crimes, according to Joel Paul, a professor of international law at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

Gitmo detainees, with no legal representation at hearings to determine their combatant status, have very limited access to evidence, and narrow rights of appeal.

"The court is saying for the first time that Common Article 3 is binding, that it does apply in U.S. courts to people the Bush administration has designated as enemy combatants,'' Paul said. "That means everybody in Guantanamo is entitled, at a minimum, to something that looks like a genuine judicial proceeding.'' (Source: Aljazeera.com)