RSS
Home
Landmark Victory
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
I scratched my previous post down last night in somewhat of a hurry in between watering the plants and getting dinner started, so this morning I thought I'd revisit yesterday's Supreme Court decision to restore habeas corpus and illustrate how vitally important it is for every American who values civil liberties.
However, let's shake things up a bit and let some other bloggers weigh in:
LRC's Ryan W. McMaken:
[Sen. Lindsey] Graham and the GOP all want judges like Scalia, of course. Judges that will conclude that the government can kill, imprison, and rob anyone it wants at any time as long as the state has decided it has a good reason to do so.
John Paul Stevens is on his last leg. If he's replaced by another Thomas or Scalia clone, you might as well start packing your bags for some secret federal cage ASAP.
Salon's Glenn Greenwald:
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 was -- and remains -- one of the great stains on our national political character. It was passed by a substantial majority in the Senate (65-34) with the support of every single Senate Republican (except Chafee) and 12 Senate Democrats. No filibuster was even attempted. It passed by a similar margin in the House, where 34 Democrats joined 219 Republicans to enact it. One of the most extraordinary quotes of the post-9/11 era came from GOP Sen. Arlen Specter, who said at the time that that the Military Commissions Act -- because it explicitly barred federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions brought by Guantanamo detainees -- "sets back basic rights by some 900 years" and was "patently unconstitutional on its face" -- and Specter then proceeded to vote for it.
[...]
Our political and media elite were more than willing -- they were eager -- to relinquish that right [to habeas corpus] to the President in the name of keeping us Safe from Terrorists. [Yesterday], the U.S. Supreme Court, in what will be one of the most celebrated landmark rulings of this generation, re-instated that basic right, and in so doing, restored one of the most critical safeguards against the very tyranny this country was founded to prevent.
Reason's Radley Balko:
Seems like a pretty serious blow to the Bush administration. I guess the only question now is whether the administration feels it's actually obligated to abide by the decision, or if it believes the president's absolute power in wartime means that in addition to ignoring Congress, he can ignore the Supreme Court, too.
If Lindsey Graham and some of his GOP cronies had their way, the Constitution would be amended to relieve us of all those irritating civil rights protections that are anything but guaranteed right now. Of course, I have to say that would probably jive nicely with the warrantless wiretapping, related domestic surveillance, and national security letters.
So that flushing sound you hear is the continued procession of our liberties down the proverbial toilet, but it looks like some Democrats and liberal members of the Supreme Court are at least trying to jiggle the handle. What's most disturbing is that this decision was 5-4, meaning that all four "conservative" justices voted to give the federal government the power to operate a virtually unimpeded police state -- first abroad but ultimately at home.
It takes a lot to make the Democrats look good, but the Republicans have been exceedingly good at it of late.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
