Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri a legal US resident who was arrested for credit card fraud, and then declared an “enemy combatant” will now have his day in court, after more than 5 years in solitary confinement.

The court ruled that he could be detained, but that the basis of the detention, the statement of a defense department official without supporting evidence, was insufficient to justify his classification.

Note that as a legal resident, he has the same rights to due process as a US citizen, and so the Bush administration’s position was thus that they were free to detain anyone at any time forever without any supporting facts.

Personally, I think that if they have evidence, it should be addressed in a real trial, though I would be not at all surprised if this hearing reveals that the emperor has no clothes.