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Supreme Court: Tribunals Exceeded Bush's Authority

President Bush overstepped his authority in the design of war crimes trials of Guantanamo detainees, according to a Supreme Court ruling.

The Bush administration argued that the president has the power to make that decision on his own. The court ruled 5-3 that the president did not have the authority to take the "extraordinary measure" of developing trials that severely limited the rights of the accused.

But the court's decision leaves open the possibility that the nation's laws could be changed to allow the trials to continue.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Nina Totenberg is NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.