And the question, basically, is whether they have the right to habeas corpus.

NPR: High Court Changes Mind on Detainee Appeals

Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg wondered whether detainees held at other bases in Germany or Iraq, for instance, would also have a right to habeas corpus.

NPR: Supreme Court Hears Guantanamo Arguments

The Bush administration argues that Congress approved just such an alternative when it stripped the courts of the right to hear the detainees' habeas corpus challenges.

NPR: Supreme Court Hears Guantanamo Arguments

And in an article in the New York Times this week the White House chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, stepped back on one point: defendants will have the right of appeal to civilian courts (through a habeas corpus proceeding).

ECONOMIST: Liberty v security

Last year he filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court saying the New York court where he was convicted violated his constitutional right to present a defense by not giving him exculpatory evidence prior to trial.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Finally, when the appeals were done and the convictions upheld, the defendants began filing habeas corpus petitions - a practice that continues to this day - claiming that this or that constitutional right was infringed, or that this or that prison condition was inhumane.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Gitmo does not cause terrorism