The Obama administration is opposing habeas corpus rights for prisoners at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. In a legal brief filed this week, the Justice Department says the estimated 600 Bagram prisoners don’t have the right to challenge their jailing in US courts. The brief came as part of the administration’s appeal of a court ruling that granted habeas corpus to three Bagram prisoners because they were seized outside Afghanistan. The move comes just as the White House began touting new guidelines it says will improve legal rights at Bagram. It also contradicts President Obama’s previous stance on habeas corpus when he was running for president. On the campaign trail just over a year ago, Obama praised the August 2008 Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo Bay prisoners can challenge their detentions in US courts. At the time, the Obama campaign said, “The Court’s decision is a rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo…This is an important step toward reestablishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.” Commenting on President Obama’s reversal, ACLU attorney Melissa Goodman said, “Since the Supreme Court declared that prisoners in Guantánamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus, it would appear that the government is attempting to use Bagram, instead, as the new off-shore warehouse for indefinite detention.”