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:: 10.20.2006 ::
Habeas Who?
BODY POLITIC IN REVOLT
How much of Bush’s agenda will stick if the Democrats win one or both Houses of Congress in the elections next month? His new law on the imprisonment, interrogation and trial of terrorist suspects must be a prime contender for attack — by the courts, if not by Congress. Bush signed the Bill just before Congress rose for the home stretch of the campaign, as if that were the last word.
For his own party, it was. Once the opposition by senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham and John Warner folded, the version passed was bound to end up close to the original wishes of the White House. But it now strips away the right to challenge detention without charge from all non-US citizens — not just for those detained outside the US, as in the original. That applies to the 12 million permanent residents who are not citizens.
Legal challenges saying that it is unconstitutional to remove the right of habeas corpus from anyone are already in train. But the potential application to 12 million people within the US will add political heat that was absent when it covered only 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. So with one stroke of the pen, Bush has addressed both the enemy combatant problem and that of illegal immigration. At least, I'm sure that's how he sees it. The rest of us see it as a sweeping attack on our Constitution, which is supposed to protect EVERYONE within the reach of the US government - not just its citizens.
I found this at the bottom of a wonderful story about Bush's unilateral rejection of an arms race ban for space.
UPDATE:
ABC News has an interesting story about three men currently held at Guantanamo whose lawyers have gathered sworn statements and affidavits from friends, family members and co-workers to the effect that they are not enemy combatants. Read the full story here.
Fark!
:: Deb 4:59 PM :: permalink ::
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