The Bush administration has declared Ali al-Marri an “enemy combatant” and is claiming the right to jail him forever without pressing charges. On Thursday al-Marri’s attorneys appeared in a federal court to fight his five-year detention. The case marks one of the first challenges of the Military Commission Act and its suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus. Constitutional scholars warn that if the government prevails it would expose more than twenty million noncitizens residing in the United States to the risk of indefinite detention on the basis of unfounded rumors, mistaken identity and lies. [includes rush transcript]