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David Hicks must now be freed from Guantanamo Bay and returned to Australia, according to a Melbourne lawyer linked to the US-based case.

The US Supreme Court ruled overnight that the Bush administration's military commission process was "unconstitutional" and illegal.

Adelaide-born Hicks, who was captured with the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001, is one of 10 inmates in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, awaiting a military commission trial.

Lex Lasry, QC, who is the Law Council of Australia's independent observer on the case, argued that Hicks should not be forced to wait behind bars any longer.

"David Hicks has been in US custody for more than four years and there is obviously no immediate prospect of him being tried in a properly constituted court as the US Supreme Court judgment requires," Mr Lasry said today.

"Any further delay while they, yet again, rebuild the system would be grossly unfair and completely unacceptable."

Mr Lasry also said there was a "very strong argument" that under a properly constituted court martial, or civilian court, there was no case for David Hicks to answer.

He said the Australian government must make an immediate request to the US administration for the release of Hicks.

The court's ruling had also vindicated the concerns of Hicks' legal team surrounding the military commission process, he said.

"The Australian government has previously expressed its concern about the delay in the proceedings," Mr Lasry said.

"They have even attempted to blame Hicks and others detainees for the delay because they were conducting proceedings in the US courts which challenged the military commission process.

"The challenge has now been thoroughly vindicated and Hicks should be returned to his home."

The US Supreme Court case focused on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a body guard and driver for Osama bin Laden.

Hamdan, 36, who has spent four years in Guantanamo, faces a single count of conspiring against US citizens from 1996 to November 2001.

SOURCE: Courier Mail.news.com.au