The good news is that a detainees' rights bill garnered majority support in the Senate yesterday.

The bad news: It wasn't enough.

Since 2002, detainees suspected of terrorist ties have been held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but they are neither convicted criminals nor official prisoners of war. Last year, a United Nations report disclosed torture-like treatment of these detainees. And the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the suspects did have the right to appeal their detention in federal court.

But through the Military Commissions Act, the GOP-led Congress last year voted to limit the detainees' rightful access to the courts. This essentially stripped the right of habeas corpus for non-Americans seen as "enemy combatants" in the war on terror.

This year, Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., were hopeful that their bill would reverse this hypocritical course. It would have restored the suspects' right to challenge their detention and treatment in court. But the 56-43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to move it forward.

One could agree with members of the American Civil Liberties Union, who say that the majority vote is a clear victory, considering the bill only won 48 votes last year. That there are still those in the Senate who support this ongoing travesty is nothing to celebrate.

Civil liberties are the cornerstones of our Constitution. How can the U.S. government in this war on terror preach the principles of democracy, if those principles are not protected here at home?

As long as Guantanamo Bay remains open and detainees are denied legal rights, America's self-proclaimed role as the defender of human rights in the global community will be undermined by hypocrisy.