UPDATE: The ‘money quote’ from SCOTUSBLOG:

The brief was another indication that, at least so far, the new Administration is not moving to make a wide-ranging break with detention policies of the former Bush Administration.

The utopian Left, which saw in the Rorshach that was candidate Barack Obama just what they wanted to see (rather than anything tangible or lasting) suffered yet another reality-based blow yesterday with the new administration’s claim in federal court that Guantanamo Bay detainees — also known as terrorists who would brutally murder every one of their Leftist defenders without breaking a sweat or losing their smiles — “do not have due process rights” afforded to Americans or civilized human beings as a whole.

According to SCOTUSBLOG:

The Obama Administration, taking its first position in a federal court on claims of torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, urged the D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit by four Britons formerly held there. In addition, the new filing argued that a recent appeals court ruling makes clear that “aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights.”

Moreover, the document called for a sweeping ban on lawsuits against U.S. military officials, claiming constitutional violations by such officials. Allowing such lawsuits “for actions taken with respect to aliens during wartime,” it said, “would enmesh the courts in military, national security, and foreign affairs matters that are the exclusive province of the political branches.”

The government brief can be seen here. The targets of the lawsuit, Rasul, et al., v. Myers, et al., (D.C. Circuit Court docket 06-5209), are former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ten military officers, whom the GITMO prisoners contend committed “systematic torture and abuse, including disparaging their religion beliefs and practices,” against them.

That’s right: the Obama administration is not only officially arguing that Guantanamo Bay detainees have no right to due process, but their filing is in direct defense of Donald Rumsfeld, former (and current to many) bugaboo of the deranged Left that made up a great deal of President Obama’s electoral base.

How’s that for irony?