this week, the vanguardists might finally get their long-overdue comeuppance on two fronts -- and from two unlikely interlocutors.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=7830

First, the Supreme Court is expected to rule soon, possibly this week, on three cases involving Bush administration detention practices at Guantanamo Bay. One case, reports Paul Harris in Britain's Observer, has to do with the status of Guantanamo itself and with conditions faced by prisoners there. Two other cases involve particular inmates, Jose Padilla and Yasser Hamdi, who have been declared "enemy combatants" and held indefinitely without trial or counsel. Lord knows we've learned not to expect much from the Supreme Court, but many experts believe that it will find against the administration in all three cases. The general consensus seems to be that even this Supreme Court will not condone a circumstance under which one lone individual can decide who is and is not an "enemy combatant," and then that person can be held indefinitely as long as we're at "war" with a non-state combatant that by its nature will never declare a surrender or agree to a truce.

If the court acts as these experts believe, look for a rush of lawsuits on behalf of virtually everyone held at Guantanamo. The Justice Department will have to start cutting deals and, eventually, that will be the blessed end of Gitmo.