US:JOHN McCAIN has condemned the United States Supreme Court ruling that detainees in Guantánamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in civilian courts, describing it as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country".
Addressing a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee recalled that he had worked with other senators to prevent the torture of prisoners and to ensure that the US abided by the Geneva Conventions.
"But we made it very clear that these are enemy combatants, these are people who are not citizens, they do not and never have been given the rights that citizens of this country have," he said.
"And, my friends, there are some bad people down there. There are some bad people. So now what are we going to do? We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called, quote, habeas corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material."
The court declared unconstitutional a provision of the 2006 military commissions Act that stripped federal courts of the right to hear habeas corpus petitions from the detainees, some of whom have been held without charge for more than six years.
Barack Obama welcomed the decision as a rejection of the Bush administration's attempt to create "a legal black hole" at Guantánamo.
"This is an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus," he said.
"Our courts have employed habeas corpus with rigour and fairness for more than two centuries, and we must continue to do so as we defend the freedom that violent extremists seek to destroy."
The two presidential campaigns yesterday clashed over how many joint appearances they should make, with Mr Obama wanting only two town-hall meetings and three debates, compared to 10 town-hall meetings and three debates proposed by Mr McCain.
Mr McCain has promised to hold a time slot open in his schedule every week from now until the party conventions in case his Democratic rival changes his mind about the joint appearances.
The Republican confirmed that he had accepted an invitation to attend joint town-hall meetings in July at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library.
Mr Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe accused the McCain campaign of trying to make a political issue out of the debates.
"Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and election day - the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.
"That package of five engagements would have been the most of any presidential campaign in the modern era, offering a broad range of formats and representing a historic commitment to openness and transparency," Mr Plouffe said.