The ruling overturned a lower court ruling regarding the status of 22-year-old Yasser Hamdi, a Louisiana-born man who was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan last year.

“The decision is a shocking abdication of responsibility by the court,” said Elisa Massimino, director of the Washington, D.C. office of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. “The court has adopted a ‘we’ll-look-the-other-way’ posture in this case which leaves unfulfilled its duty to act as a check on administrative power.”

“The court has said, in effect, that the facts in this case do not concern it,” added Massimino. “While it purports to limit its ruling to people picked up on the battlefield, the court's refusal to examine the facts underlying the government's assertions essentially gives the administration carte blanche to detain whomever it pleases, without the threat of judicial review."

Hamdi’s case has long been seen as one of a handful of early cases that will determine how the administration is able to wage its so-called “war on terrorism.” If Hamdi is allowed to be held indefinitely without charge - or access to a lawyer - the Lawyers Committee is concerned that others will be treated similarly.

“The court seems to be saying that it has no role whatsoever in overseeing the administration’s conduct of the war on terrorism,” said Massimino. “This is particularly disturbing in the context of a potentially open-ended, as yet undeclared war, whose beginning and end is left solely to the President’s discretion.”