Graphic photos of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners present the Supreme Court with its latest, but not its last, national-security legal dilemma.

On Tuesday, justices will meet privately to consider the incendiary photos, as well as a case involving Chinese Muslim men who've been held without charges at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Both legal disputes could become the highest-profile national security conflicts of the Supreme Court term that starts Oct. 5.

These cases, and others like them, also demonstrate how the Obama administration is defending some of the Bush administration's most controversial anti-terrorism policies.

Fundamental questions about liberty, detention and a president's wartime authority have captivated the Supreme Court since the 9-11 terrorist attacks.