British High Court Decision Advances the Cause of Human Rights in War on Terror

Judges from the British House of Lords ruled that the British government cannot hold terror suspects indefinitely without trial.

The decision came on behalf of a group of foreign nationals who have been held by the British government for over three years and will force Tony Blair’s government to put the foreigners on trial.

This is a major setback for the British government, who argued that their national security would be put at risk if the men were to go on trial. One of the judges even said that the law that put the men in prison without trial is a bigger threat to the British public than the terrorism that the British government is trying to prevent.

Human rights advocates welcomed the news, but the hawks were unhappy that their house of cards came crashing down.

Hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will have the same opportunity to order the American government to put terror detainees on trial as well and force the Bush Administration to adhere to the Constitution when it comes to detaining people that they suspect of being terrorists, instead of locking them away without telling them what they are accused of.