Habeus Corpus

[babylonsister]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17899500&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555110&rfi=6

Habeus corpus

02/26/2007

Our Position: Denial of right deserves high court's attention.

Congress should tear itself away from the pointless business of passing nonbinding resolutions on Iraq and begin cleaning up the damage we've done to ourselves in the war on terror. That task became more urgent last week when the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia upheld, in a 2-1 ruling, the constitutionality of a provision denying the right of habeas corpus to detainees held outside the United States.

The Military Commissions Act (MCA) was passed last year - hastily and without much thought, like so much anti-terrorism legislation - after the Supreme Court told the Bush administration that it had to get congressional permission for its plan to try the detainees before military tribunals.

Part of that law banned the detainees at U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan from challenging in civilian courts the legality of their detention. That right, of habeas corpus, is a bedrock principle of Anglo-Saxon law going back eight centuries, and it is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution.

Carving out an exception to that right based on a sketchy designation as an "enemy combatant" was a terrible precedent, essentially justifying arbitrary imprisonment.

The senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., tried to rectify this departure from U.S. respect for the rule of law last year and failed by just three votes. They have reintroduced their bill in the new Congress.

Another bill, by Leahy and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., would restore the right of habeas corpus and clean up some other unfortunate provisions in the MCA by sharpening the definition of "illegal combatant," excluding evidence obtained by coercion and allowing military judges to exclude hearsay evidence.

If the circuit-court ruling stands, the practical effect would be to force the federal courts to dismiss more than 400 habeas-corpus appeals.

The ruling will certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court, and one hopes that the high court would stand up for this ancient and fundamental right.

But it would be better if Congress acted first to demonstrate our faith and confidence in our own system.

[oldtimecanuk]

1. Yep, I so agree with you they need to do away with MCA ASAP..

Not sure how much problem they would have with Republicans on squashing this Act.

ww

[stellanoir]

2. yeah perhaps this alleged war on terror (an abstract noun) should not

cause us to roll back the law to prior 1215.

Impunity of this cabal is illiegal.