With the way the Supreme Court is moving, with a new 5-4 split that reflects the kind of court President Bush has long hoped to leave as his legacy, you know it would take a slam dunk of a case for its new majority to stand up to the White House.

But that is just what the Roberts court did in allowing detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay to challenge their detention. As Americans, we like to comfort ourselves that Guantanamo is a holding pen for truly bad people who are now turning for protection to a society they would prefer to destroy. But report after report suggests the administration's creative rewriting of our military and penal code is a blunt instrument that has trapped innocents in its snare and in doing so has mocked the Constitution and one of its most valued principles: habeas corpus. The Supreme Court took a rare step in reversing its own previous decision not to hear appeals by Guantanamo detainees, suggesting that they believe it is the power of the United States to combat terror and uphold the rule of law — our law.

There may be criminals at Gitmo. Applying the law to such individuals need not threaten our security. Denying them their rights, however, surely threatens the ideals upon which we stand.

In welcoming the Court's decision, Mark Pelavin of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center invoked the Torah, writing that Jewish tradition commands us to "have one law for the stranger and citizen alike." There can be no more important message to send to the world — especially those who act outside that law.