Washington (PTI): Legal and civil rights groups have hailed the 5-4 decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional right to habeas corpus.

"The Supreme Court has finally brought an end to one of our nation's most egregious injustices," said Vincent Warren, Executive Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights.

"By granting the writ of habeas corpus, the Court recognises a rule of law established hundreds of years ago and essential to American jurisprudence since our nation's founding. With habeas you never would have had these men so many of whom have been cleared of any wrongdoing locked up and abused because no court was watching.

"In those cases, the government will now have to put up or shut up: it will have to show an impartial judge enough evidence to justify detention. This six-year-long nightmare serves as a lesson in how fragile our constitutional protections truly are in the hands of an overzealous executive," Vincent said in a statement.

Associate Justice Antony Kennedy writing for the majority opinion: "within the constitution's separation-of-powers structure, few exercises of judicial power are as legitimate or as necessary as the responsibility to hear challenges to the authority of the Executive to imprison a person.... Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law."