 However, the case also aroused controversy about the court itself. David Marr described the four to three decision as indicating a new division in the composition of the court, the "liberty divide", and noted that the result on the liberty question moved the court in the opposite direction to the contemporary trends of the Supreme Court of the United States and the House of Lords. Arthur Glass observed that the minority judges began their judgments from the position that indefinite non-judicial detention and the curtailment of personal freedom were troubling consequences, and noted that "as is not uncommon in statutory construction, where you start from is critical to where you end up." Marr accused the majority of deciding that "saving Australia from boat people counts for more than Al-Kateb's raw liberty."
