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The National Council of Churches said the Supreme Court ruling last month barring the use of military commissions to try detainees held at Guantánamo Bay is “a reasoned affirmation of what people of faith have been trying to communicate to the White House for years.

“Any effort to deny the rule of law to accused individuals, no matter how grievous the charges, is a denial of the most fundamental expression of American democratic ideals,” the ecumenical agency said in a statement issued after the June 29 court ruling.

The National Council of Churches and its online site FaithfulAmerica.org have reiterated a demand for the closure of the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, following the suicides of three prisoners there.

“Americans who love their country and its historic ideals are mortified by this continuing blot on our honor, on our steadfast defense of freedom, and on our commitment to democracy and the rule of law,” Robert Edgar, the council’s general secretary, said in a June 11 statement.

On the night of June 10, two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen fashioned makeshift ropes from knotted bed sheets, then hanged themselves in their Guantánamo Bay prison cells. Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the prison, reported the deaths and commented: “They are smart, they are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”