Legal Beat

The Justice Department filed a memorandum in federal court in Washington today that steered clear of President George W. Bush's argument that the president's commander-in-chief status authorized him to detain suspected terrorists as "enemy combatants."

Instead, the Justice Department relied on the use-of-force resolution Congress passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and international law, to stake out essentially the same broad detention authority that Bush claimed.

Moreover, the administration told the court that its new rationale applied only to current Guantanamo detainees, and could evolve as the administration settles on a new detention regime.