WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear appeals from seven men held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, passing up an opportunity to clarify its last Guantánamo decision, in 2008. That ruling, in Boumediene v. Bush, gave prisoners at Guantánamo a “meaningful opportunity” to challenge their detentions in court.

Human rights groups said the new cases presented significant questions about whether the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had been faithful to that instruction, and they expressed disappointment that the Supreme Court declined to intercede.

“By refusing to hear these cases, and any Guantánamo cases since its 2008 Boumediene decision, the court abandons the promise of its own ruling guaranteeing detainees a constitutional right to meaningful review of the legality of their detention,” Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement.

In three major rulings between 2004 and 2008, the Supreme Court rejected aspects of the Bush administration’s assertions of broad executive power to detain and try prisoners held at Guantánamo. Though President Obama vowed to close the prison, it still houses about 170 detainees. The court has heard no Guantánamo cases during Mr. Obama’s presidency.