TomPaine: Habeas Corpus Can't Wait

[marmar]

Habeas Corpus Can't Wait
Aziz Huq
March 05, 2007


Aziz Huq directs the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice. He is co-author of Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in Times of Terror, and recipient of a 2006 Carnegie Scholars Fellowship.

Last week, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia acted to return Guantánamo detainees to the Supreme Court. They ruled against the detainees , holding that they have no rights under the Constitution, thanks to the Military Commission Act of 2006.

Partisans of the rule of law look forward to the High Court’s intervention, expecting the court to rule for the detainees on the bottom-line question (of a right to writ of habeas corpus , or the right to challenge one’s detention). Many in Congress will be tempted to hang back now and allow the federal courts to finally rule on the pivotal issues presented by cases, which first filed more than five years ago.

But we should not give in to the temptation to let the court pick up the slack for a legislature that has singularly failed to live up to its oversight responsibilities. Whether or not a court finds that the detainees have constitutional rights cannot and will not answer the many difficult questions raised by the detainees’ predicament. And there is much that Congress can and must do, regardless of how the court rules.

The detainees at Guantánamo have been waiting for their day in federal court since January 2002, when the first petitions of habeas corpus were filed. From the beginning, the relief they sought has been narrow: not the automatic right to walk free, but the right to challenge the factual basis of their detention before an independent decision-maker. From the beginning of the Guantánamo regime, it has been clear that government claims that the camps housed “the worst of the worst” were factually wrong—and that the government knew as much.

This, however, is an administration that does cakewalks, not climbdowns. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/05/habeas_corpus_cant_wait.php

[jwirr]

1. I also feel that this is maybe the most important issue for this congress.

While it is only being used against a few there are not guarantees that as *ss gets more desperate he will not use it against more of us and with little provocation. This one peace of law was important enough to be respected since the 1300s it seems to me that nothing has changed that much. It is the one law that protects us against despot leaders more than any other.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Lack of evidence or something to hide

Given the track record for the Bush (mis-)administration's lack of (successful) prosecution of individuals on terrorism-related charges, it would seem that they either don't have the kind of rock-solid evidence of "evildoing" that they claim to have in regards to Gitmo detainees or have something else to hide (Torture? Coerced testimony/confessions?) by preventing any kind of public view/scrutiny of the prosecution of these detainees. My guess would be both. I never knew that one day I would end up actually feeling ashamed to be an American when I see and hear about what this illegitimate regime has done (and continues to do) in our names.:(

[marmar]

4. Definitely something to hide.

:think:

[ThomWV]

3. K&R

This is a must-read opnion piece.