Affirming the right of detainees to a hearing on the cause of their imprisonment is just.

"You provide the body" is the English translation of one of our most important rights in this country. I am sure only lawyers and a few diehard Latin scholars know the answer: habeas corpus.

Moreover, I suspect that only a minority of us could explain what this right actually means.

Habeas corpus is the right to petition a court to determine why one is being detained.

It says nothing about guilt or innocence, but it ensures that no American can be locked up because someone in authority simply says so without "providing the body" of the imprisoned person for a hearing on the cause of detention.

The framers of the Constitution thought it so important that it is the only right with its own clause in the body of the Constitution.

All other of our specific rights as citizens are embodied in the Bill of Rights, added two years after the ratification of the Constitution.

Habeas corpus has been much in the news of late, as the U.S. Supreme Court, in a rebuff to the Bush administration, determined that detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had the right to go to federal court to challenge their detention.

A DEFINING MOMENT

The decision is one of those that will reverberate over time as a defining moment for the Court in establishing its role as the final arbiter in constitutional matters.

The controversy goes all the way back to January 2002, when the administration began transporting prisoners suspected of bring terrorists to Guantanamo Bay.

They then declared that the base was outside the reach of the civilian judicial system.

The court ruled in 2004 that the habeas corpus statute gives federal courts jurisdiction over U.S. territories and, therefore, those prisoners at Guantanamo had such rights.

The Bush administration quickly petitioned Congress to draft legislation explicitly stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction over the cases of detainees in Guantanamo.

This legislation was hugely controversial when it was rushed through by the Republican majority in early 2006.

This was the legislation that set the stage for the Supreme Court's recent decision.

The rebuff to the administration is severe.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, stated that the Constitution makes clear that "habeas corpus may only be suspended when cases of rebellion and public safety may require it."

The 5-4 majority included two justices appointed during Democratic administrations and three appointed during Republican administrations, but none of the four most recent Republican nominees – Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Reading between the lines, the message from the court is clear.

Holding terrorist suspects over many years without giving them the opportunity to present evidence as to why they should not be held is flatly unconstitutional.

I may be a moderate when it comes to economic policy and taxes, but I am decidedly immoderate in my passion for the checks and balances that have made our system of government work over these more than 200 years.

This administration overstepped its bounds in Guantanamo, and in the related areas of the so-called "warrantless wiretaps."

President Bush overreached, and this decision of the Supreme Court is a welcome one.

We can continue to prosecute the war on terror effectively within the bounds of the Constitution.

We may risk missing some terrorist signals, but we cannot risk compromising our fundamental principles.

CONSTITUTION IS VITAL

Controversies like this one on detainees' rights serve to remind us what a vital document the Constitution continues to be.

If you doubt this, it is time for you to get down to Philadelphia to visit the Museum of the Constitution.

This museum opened only a few years ago. It is a wonderful place that brings new life and understanding to the shaping of the document that is the blueprint of American democracy.

While I may not be in favor of mandatory voting, I am in favor of making a visit to this museum mandatory for every high school senior.