MIAMI — The Navy lawyer who challenged the Bush administration's efforts to try terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, walked a professional tight rope between fellow officers trying to gain speedy convictions and what he considered a moral imperative to buck the chain of command and vigorously defend his client.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift could have taken the easy route of arranging a plea bargain for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the Yemeni alleged to have worked as a driver and bodyguard for al-Qaida kingpin Osama bin Laden.

But mindful of the dangerous precedent that could be set by denying international standards of justice to those swept up in the war on terror, Swift battled to get the rights and protections of the Geneva Conventions for his client. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his war powers in sending Hamdan and nine others to face dubious military tribunals.

"I feel like we all won, that the rule of law won, and that is essentially what we are all about," Swift said of the court's validation of his three-year campaign to get justice for his 36-year-old client.

The Pentagon assigned Swift to defend Hamdan in November 2003. A superior officer initially ordered him to secure a plea bargain so there would be a timely conviction in the first military tribunals since World War II.

"I had the unenviable task of going down to this guy from Yemen in the uniform of people who had been treating him badly and saying, 'If you don't make a deal you may never see me again' " Swift recalled of his first meeting at Guantanamo with Hamdan and his decision to fight a process stacked against the defendant.

Swift was allowed a rare phone call to the Guantanamo prison Thursday to give Hamdan the news of their legal victory. He described the prisoner as "humble, not jubilant, and very, very thankful.

"It was gratifying to hear the belief in his voice, the recognition that mighty people don't always get to do what they want," Swift said of Hamdan.

Colleagues attributed the court ruling to Swift's determination to protect the integrity of U.S. jurisprudence against a Pentagon juggernaut aimed at retribution for terror attacks on U.S. forces.

"It took exceptional courage. He had to risk himself being alienated from the larger military establishment," said David Scheffer, law professor and director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University.

While Swift's successful challenge of the war-crimes tribunal's legitimacy will likely open doors in the private sector and academia for the Navy lawyer, Scheffer said, Swift has reportedly been passed over for promotion.

"I love the military. I love my career and I'm proud of it," Swift said, noting he will be eligible for early retirement in nine months and will leave the Navy unless he is promoted. "One thing that has been a great revelation for me is that you may love the military, but it doesn't necessarily love you."