The foreign detainees at Guantanamo Bay were granted the right to challenge their detention in US civilian by the US Supreme Court, BBC reported. The ruling overturned by 5 to 4 another ruling that upheld a 2006 law that wouldn’t allow suspects detained at Guantanamo to seek full judicial review of their detention.

The 2006 law had been pushed by President George W. Bush through the Republican-led Congress.

However, it is not clear whether the ruling will lead to prompt hearings for the suspects held at the high security prison. Approximately 270 men are behind bars at the US naval base in Cuba. They are suspected of collaborating with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

The US Supreme Court ruled that the suspects detained at Guantanamo "have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus".

"The laws and constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court majority in the 70-page opinion. He added that Congress court failed to come up with an adequate alternative for the prisoners held at Guantanamo to contest their detention.

The law passed by the Bush administration in 2006 gave the detainees rights to have a limited review by a U.S. appeals court in Washington. The law took away the detainees’ right to a hearing before a U.S. district court judge to challenge their confinement.

The ruling is the third setback for the Bush administration at US Supreme Court on the subject of the treatment of prisoners. The court has previously ruled twice that the foreign prisoners held at Guantanamo are allowed to go into civilian courts and seek a justification from the government for their continuous detention.

Despite the two rulings, the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress changed the law to prevent the detainees from seeking justice into civilian courts.