The New York Times called the decision a “historic event, a defining moment in the ever-shifting balance of power.” Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling.

• Ben Wizner: “It’s a very important decision today. And we have to remember what Guantanamo is. Guantanamo was an attempt on behalf of the administration to create an island outside the law; to bring these detainees to a place where no law applied to them and where the United States could do whatever it wanted to them. And what the Supreme Court said today is that even in Guantanamo Bay, U.S. law and international law apply, and if we’re going to try these people for crimes, we have to try them under a legal system–not a system that we make up as we go along.”