Attorney General Gonzales: There is no right to habeas corpus in the United States

[madmusic]

Friday, January 19, 2007

In his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony yesterday, Attorney General Gonzales matter-of-factly suggested that there is no right to habeas guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution; the Constitution merely states that the right of habeas, whatever it is, cannot be suspended except in cases of rebellion or invasion.

Senator Specter was deeply skeptical of this answer, as well he should be.

Prohibitions against suspension are a guarantee of an underlying right, because they prevent certain legal relations between the state and individuals from being suspended except under very limited conditions; and that is what Gonzales' too-clever answer glossed over.

Gonzales might have been trying to suggest that statutory habeas was not covered by the Suspension Clause of Article I, section 9, but his remarks went much further, stating that "the Constitution doesn't say, 'Every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas.' It doesn't say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended . . ." Note that Gonzales did not limit himself to individuals within the United States-- he included citizens as well.

Perhaps Gonzales misspoke under the glare of a hostile judiciary committee hearing. But his remarks show a very worrisome approach toward the Great Writ, and it is not the first time we've seen it. It is the same approach we've already witnessed in the Administration's views about Jose Padilla, Yasser Hamdi, and other accused enemy combatants, as well as its views about detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Under this approach, habeas corpus is *not* an individual right. It is merely a default rule that can be waived in the interests of national security according to the judgment of the President as Commander-in-Chief.

more http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/01/attorney-general-gonzales-there-is-no.html

[illinoisprogressive]

1. You have to wonder what law school this guy went to...

[madmusic]

6. Exactly!

How can something that doesn't exist be suspended?

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Law school?

Sounds like the guy didn't even make it out of grade school :banghead:

[Hieronymus]

11. You think he went to law school?

:sarcasm:

[BlueIris]

14. That would be Harvard Law School, apparently.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/gonzales-bio.html

The wiki entry is a little, um, more fair and balanced about that, though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Gonzales

"Gonzales was born in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Humble, near Houston. He was the second of eight children born to Pablos and Maria Gonzales. His father, who died in 1982, was a construction worker. Both his parents were children of immigrants from Mexico with less than a high-school education themselves; in the midst of a national debate in the US about immigration from Mexico, Gonzales told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that no immigration documentation exists for three of his grandparents and they may have entered and resided in the United States illegally (<1>).

An honors student at MacArthur High School in Houston, Gonzales enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1973, for a four year hitch, serving for two years at Fort Yukon, Alaska before being accepted to the United States Air Force Academy in 1975. In 1977, he transferred to Rice University, where he was a member of Lovett College and earned a degree in political science in 1979; he never completed the remaining 2 years of his USAF obligation; he then earned a Juris Doctor (J.D) degree from Harvard Law School in 1982. He was the only one of his siblings to finish college. He has been married twice: he and his first wife, Diane Clemens, divorced in 1985; he and his second wife, Rebecca Turner Gonzales, have three sons.

Despite keeping a low profile about his religious affiliation, Gonzales has described himself as a Catholic."

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

15. Never completed his 2 year USAF obligation

I had always wondered about his qualifications, now I see he is very qualified to be a Bushista.

[Frank Cannon]

18. Harvard has one hell of a business school too

Witness the amazing business acumen of its esteemed alumnus George W. Bush.

What the fuck do they do all day at Harvard?

[w4rma]

2. He's the primary author of the Patriot Act. He did not misspeak. (nt)

[Jack Rabbit]

5. The Patriot Act misspeaks volumes

[ReadTomPaine]

19. Actually, Viet Dinh & John Yoo are the primary authors of USA Patriot..

If memory serves, Gonzales contributed somewhat to Patriot II and was an ideological bodyguard for the legislation during the reauthorization process, writing op-ed pieces in WAPO and elsewhere as well as protecting more extreme provisions as the bill wound it's way through congress.

Yoo is also responsible for the Unitary Executive theory, btw.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. "The Constitution is just a piece of paper" (apocryphal statement by Shrub)

I can see why people believe the Chimpmeister in the White House actually said this. The entire administration acts this way.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Gonzales is a shitbag. Go climb in the garbage can, shitbag.

Fucking fascist.

PB

[LibDemAlways]

8. Where else but in the current administration would

you find an Attorney General openly contemptuous of the Constitution? I can't believe a single Dem voted to confirm this scumbag.

[Zodiak]

21. Dems that voted for Gonzales

Leiberman, Salazar, Pryor, Landrieu, the Nelsons

All the usual suspects, and all memebrs of the DLC.

[LibDemAlways]

22. How bad would a nominee have to be before these

turncoats would vote "no"?

The people of CT had an opportunity to kick Lieberman's sorry ass to the curb, and didn't do it. Boggles the mind.

[Norrin Radd]

9. Treasonous. Gonzales should be exiled. n/t

[Seabiscuit]

17. He should be Gitmo's sole prisoner.

[Norrin Radd]

20. He'd probably think he'd get lemon chicken for dinner. n/t

[tom_paine]

10. Fuck Gonzales and his Nazi mentality, his purposeful obliviousness

Even a stinking toady like Specter was astonished by his mendacity!

"You mean to say that the fact that it says in Article I Section IX 'the right of habeus corpus shall not be abridged except in times of invasion or rebellion' doesn't imply the right of habeus corpus?"

"All I am saying, Senator," replied the odious and criminal Gonzales, "is there is no explicit right in habeus corpus outlined in the Constitution."

What Specter should have replied:

"You little piece of shit. Don't pull that grade-school semantics on me. You know damned well that when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, habeus corpus was an established principle 500 years old and they assumed, as any 1st Grader would, that mentioning it would more than cement the fact that IT EXISTS for every American. Not to mention the VI Amendment, which basically also outlines conditions of habeus corpus."

[izzie]

12. I sort of thought we got this in order with King John.

Oh well I read history as a hobby hardly as a person who Bush would put at the head of the laws in this country. I will be sure to take Gonzales off my list of lawyers to call if the police ever pick me up. My guess is Bush will also as he has been picked up by the police.

[Hekate]

13. 5th Recommend. Alberto "Torquemada" Gonzales rides again. Very scary man.

[silverojo]

16. Torture Boy's parents were illegal aliens

He's currently starring in "Anchor Babies Gone Wild". :scared:

[Hubert Flottz]

23. " There is no right to habeas corpus"

"There is no right to habeas corpus" In Saddam's Iraq, or in Hitler's Germany, or Stalin's USSR, or in Communist Red China, or Communist North Korea!