WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department will seek dismissal of lawsuits from more than 300 Guantanamo Bay detainees fighting the legality of their confinement, using a new law that the Bush administration says sharply limits existing challenges. Advocates for detainees quickly registered their opposition Tuesday.The measure, part of the Defense Appropriations Act that President Bush signed last week, was intended to allow detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba to appeal their detention status and punishments to a federal appeals court in Washington. That avenue replaces the one tool the Supreme Court gave detainees in 2004 to fight the legality of their detentions - the right to file habeas corpus lawsuits, which demand that the government justify someone's continued imprisonment, in any federal court.
The new provision won broad support only after its chief Democratic sponsor, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said it had been altered so it would not apply to pending cases.
But on Tuesday, the Justice Department notified judges at U.S. District Court in Washington that it will ask them to dismiss 187 cases involving more than 300 people because the law eliminates the jurisdiction of district courts to consider the legality of detentions at the naval base.
The decision to try to stop pending cases in their tracks drew an immediate
| The nice thing about all the court challenges is that the mooks sitting in Gitmo have to stay there until the wheels of justice grind to a finish. |