McCain Denounces Detainee Ruling

Sen. John McCain sharply criticized the Supreme Court for ruling that detainees can have access to U.S. courts. (By L.m. Otero -- Associated Press)

But there have always been two issues at stake in the debate over detainees: how to interrogate them and how to try them. On the issue of trying them, McCain has pushed for trials, but, like President Bush, he has rejected calls from human rights groups and detainee lawyers to allow them in U.S. courts.

McCain visited Guantanamo Bay in late 2003 with Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.), then the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and the three wrote a letter to then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asking him to start military commissions because some detainees had been held for two years without any judicial process. The letter indicates that McCain and his colleagues wanted the detainees to be tried or sent home, but it also endorsed the president's original military commissions, which the Supreme Court later found to be unconstitutional.

"A serious process must be established in the very near term either to formally treat and process the detainees as war criminals or to return them to their countries for appropriate judicial action," the senators wrote on Dec. 12, 2003.

That letter put McCain at odds with the Bush administration, which decided at the time that it had the right to hold detainees indefinitely. But the senator and the president now agree on how detainees should be tried.

McCain told reporters he would seek to narrow the implications of the decision in Congress. When asked if he would seek to overturn the ruling through a constitutional amendment, McCain replied, "Frankly, we should try to exhaust our legislative options" and "try to more narrowly refine" the decision.

Two Senate allies of McCain, Graham and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), said they would join McCain in seeking to mitigate the court ruling. Graham, who also serves as a reserve military judge, has long sought to limit detainee access to U.S. courts.

Lieberman cited the decision as a reason voters should back McCain for president over Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who applauded the Supreme Court decision Friday. "The consequences are going to be quite different, depending on who you vote for," he said.

Staff writers Josh White and Michael Abramowitz contributed to this report.