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Justice, or Just us? Thoughts on the Supreme Court ruling to grant Guantanamo prisoners access to U.S. Courts
When the Supreme Court handed down its split decision to grant detainees at Guantanamo Bay access to the U.S. Court system, in true character, both George W. Bush and John McCain conveyed their disappointment with the decision. McCain described it as “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country…” The court’s decision invalidated a 2006 law, backed by McCain, which stripped Guantanamo Bay inmates of the right to file habeas corpus petitions in U.S. courts. The court’s majority opinion, seen as a rebuke to the Bush administration and Congress, held that inmates at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay are protected by the Constitution and may seek release in federal court. What is habeas corpus? Habeas corpus (/’heɪbiəs ‘kɔɹpəs/), Latin for “you [should] have the body”, is the name of a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. How has the Bush Administration tried to apply its own version of the law? The November 13, 2001 Presidential Military Order purported to give the President of the United States the power to detain non-citizens suspected of connection to terrorists or terrorism as enemy combatants. As such, that person could be held indefinitely, without charges being filed against him or her, without a court hearing, and without entitlement to a legal consultant. Many legal and constitutional scholars contended that these provisions were in direct opposition to habeas corpus, and the United States Bill of Rights. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus_in_the_United_States While we are all well aware that we are at war with terrorist extremist factions around the world, if we seek to demonstrate to the world that we are the “High Road”, we must do it through example. If you are detained in our prisons, you are detained under the laws of this country. If we begin denying rights to even our enemies, we begin diluting the freedom, equal rights and justice, that are supposed to be the primary and fundamental differences between us and our enemies. John McCain is worried that granting these detainees the right of access to the U.S. Court system will bring on a tidal wave of court petitions and frivolous lawsuits that will bog down the court system. It is actually a real concern, but we cannot begin to deny someone their rights just because it would be inconvenient to do otherwise. Our laws were not designed for the convenience of the government. The laws of this country were put in place to protect common people from abuse of government power. While Bush and McCain, and the majority of the right interpret “people” as U.S. citizens, once we take a prisoner into a U.S. controlled prison, as a just and free nation we have no choice but to grant he or she the same rights as any other prisoner in our criminal justice system, regardless of how heinous the crime. Proponents of the Bush point of view will argue that the detainees at Guantanamo are Prisoners of War and draw all their rights from the Geneva Conventions. But the Bush Administration has even found a loophole for upholding the Geneva Conventions by declaring these terrorist detainees as “unlawful combatants”, essentially denying them of all rights and protections. The abuses against Guantanamo detainees are well documented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp While I detest, deplore and denounce the harm terrorists and enemies of freedom try to cause the United States, its citizens, and all free-thinking people around the globe, unless we fight them with the same idealism that motivated the founders of this nation, not only will we give our enemies a substantive case against us, but the “Good Fight” will deteriorate little by little until we are not much better than our enemies. We are better than that, but we must prove it anew with our actions, every day. William S. James
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