Occasionally, amid the gloom of these times, there is a glimmer of hope, a cause to believe that reason and justice can prevail over fear and cruelty. Today’s is provided by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as reported by the McClatchy Newspapers:

Pentagon can’t hold `enemy combatant,’ court rules

A federal appeals court on Monday dealt President Bush another major setback in his efforts to create a system of justice for suspected terrorists, ruling that his administration can’t continue the indefinite military detention of a Qatari man who was arrested in Illinois but never charged with a crime.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., found that Bush had overstepped his authority when he declared Ali al-Marri, who was in the United States legally, an “enemy combatant” and ordered the Justice Department to turn him over to the military. He’s been detained for four years at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

The court ordered that Marri be turned over to civilian authorities.

“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the president calls them `enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution and the country,” the panel wrote.

The 4th Circuit said that Marri should face criminal charges in a civilian court, if the government has evidence to support a case.

“The president’s constitutional powers do not allow him to order the military to seize and detain indefinitely Marri without criminal process any more than they permit the president to seize and detain without criminal process other terrorists within the United States, like the Unabomber or the perpetrators of the (1995) Oklahoma City bombing,” the panel’s majority wrote.

The court also said that the Bush administration’s central claim that Marri didn’t have a right to court review of his detention under last year’s Military Commissions Act was invalid. The ruling said nothing in that law indicated that Congress had meant to limit the habeas corpus rights of civilians arrested and held in the United States.

“It’s a landmark ruling which affirms the right of all individuals in this country – citizens as well as non-citizens – to habeas corpus,” said Jonathan Hafetz, a lead attorney for al-Marri and a law professor at New York University’s Brennan Center.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales expressed disappointment with the decision and said the government would ask the full 4th Circuit Court to review the decision. Whatever the outcome of that process, many legal scholars expect the Supreme Court ultimately to decide the case. [full text]