WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved President Bush's plan to question and try foreign terrorism suspects before military judges -- without oversight by the federal courts.
Bush is expected to receive a bill he can sign into law in the next few days, but legal challenges almost assuredly will be pursued against the prosecution process, which the administration considers a key element in its war on terrorism.
The measure's most disputed provision would block foreign prisoners held by the military from turning to the federal courts to end their imprisonment. By preventing detainees from challenging their confinement in court, it sets up a potential constitutional conflict before the Supreme Court.
The Senate by a 51-to-48 vote Thursday rejected a proposal to include this right in the bill establishing rules for the new military tribunal system. The overall bill was then approved, 65 to 34.
The measure is virtually the same as one passed by the House on Wednesday.
The legislative victory for the president came three months after he had suffered a stinging defeat in the Supreme Court. In striking down the plan the White House had devised for putting "unlawful enemy combatants" on trial, the justices ruled that Congress must authorize the process for trying terrorism suspects.
The Republican-led House and Senate not only gave Bush the legal authority he requested, but told the Supreme Court to stay out of the matter, now and in the future.
The bill won passage in the Senate hours after Bush journeyed to Capitol Hill to tell GOP lawmakers that "there's still an enemy out there that wants to do harm to the United States."
Slight differences in the Senate version of the bill mean it must be returned to the House, where it is expected to easily win approval today. Republican leaders then plan to forward the bill to the White House with a ceremony on Capitol Hill, in line with the party's effort to highlight its national security credentials before the November election.
"This legislation will give the president the tools he needs to protect American lives without compromising our core democratic values," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said.
But some lawmakers, Republicans as well as Democrats, called the move to suspend habeas corpus -- the demand for legal justification of one's imprisonment -- a historic mistake, and one that could cause the entire bill to be struck down.
