(So I never thought, say back in the nineties, that I'd ever see a sentence ending "working to restore Habeas Corpus" that didn't begin with, say, "Costa Rica". Stupid me. - promoted by Mike)
Of all the terrible things the Republicans passed in the last Congress, one of the most plainly offensive was the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This law was developed following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (PDF), which made clear the President does not have the authority to convene Executive Branch tribunals to try persons in US custody, but suggested that the President could seek that authority from Congress.
The law Congress passed to remedy this is just plain scary. I don't want to go through the details of the law here, but essentially it gives the executive branch the authority to determine who is and who isn't allowed to challenge their detention through a writ of habeas corpus. The text of the law makes clear that this only applies to aliens, including resident aliens (green card holders), and not to United States citizens.
That looks all well and good, if you believe resident aliens should not have...[Click There's More for the rest of this article] |
| the same protections as citizens. I don't believe that and I think the Constitution is on my side on that one, because there is a long history of the Judiciary affirming that resident aliens have constitutional rights, like the right to due process, for example. On a more practical level, you have to have a lot of faith that the executive branch won't hold a US Citizen in violation of the law, if it so pleased, because any such claim wouldn't ever get before the Judiciary in the first place.
The Military Commissions Act also says that a person being held in violation of the Geneva Conventions can't challenge their detention on that basis. Which, if you know anything about treaty compliance, is a terrible thing for any country, especially a country as influential as ours, to do. It's also an apparent violation of Article VI of the Constitution, in my view.
Now aside from the fact that Alberto Gonzales isn't sure if you have a constitutional right to habeas corpus to begin with, I'm glad that someone is going to do something about this.
That someone is Chris Dodd.
Chris Dodd is sponsoring a bill, along with Sens. Leahy, Feingold, and Menendez, entitled "Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007" which deals with military tribunals, restores the legal strength of the Geneva Conventions, and restores habeas corpus.
I have had an increasingly favorable impression of Chris Dodd, who, as we know, is running for President. I saw him speak at the post-primary unity rally in Manchester and at a fundraiser in Nashua for the Hillsborough County Democrats. He talked a lot about the rule of law and America's role in the world. I'm glad to see that wasn't just talk.
I hope you will lend your support to his bill (PDF), which you can do here. |
