« Barack Obama In Denial of His Middle Name Fight The Smears Website | Main | I Wonder How Obama's Family Feels About His Denial »
June 13, 2008
Court Gives Detainees Habeas Rights ~ Lawyers Thrilled
"The Nation will live to regret what the Court had done today," Justice Antonin Scalia writes at the end of his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush, the case in which a bare majority of the Supreme Court, for the first time ever, extended rights under the U.S. constitution to enemy combatants who have never set foot on U.S. soil.
Court gives detainees habeas rights
In a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to pursue habeas challenges to their detention. The Court, dividing 5-4, ruled that Congress had not validly taken away habeas rights. If Congress wishes to suspend habeas, it must do so only as the Constitution allows — when the country faces rebellion or invasion.The Court stressed that it was not ruling that the detainees are entitled to be released — that is, entitled to have writs issued to end their confinement. That issue, it said, is left to the District Court judges who will be hearing the challenges. The Court also said that “we do not address whether the President has authority to detain” individuals during the war on terrorism, and hold them at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba; that, too, it said, is to be considered first by the District judges.
The Court also declared that detainees do not have to go through the special civilian court review process that Congress created in 2005, since that is not an adequate substitute for habeas rights. The Court refused to interpret the Detainee Treatment Act — as the Bush Administration had suggested — to include enough legal protection to make it an adequate replacement for habeas. Congress, it concluded, unconstitutionally suspended the writ in enacting that Act.
Justice Scalia
Both the Chief Justice and Justice Antonin Scalia issued dissenting opinions, and all four dissenters joined in both dissents. In his dissent, Justice Scalia writes, “The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” Justice Scalia’s 25-page dissenting opinion concludes, “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent.”
Chief Justice John Roberts
Chief Justice John Roberts says the rule of law and the American people have lost out–and with this ruling, we “lose a bit more control over the conduct of this Nation’s foreign policy to unelected, politically unaccountable judges.”
So who has won? Not the detainees. The Court’s analysis leaves them with only the prospect of further litigation to determine the content of their new habeas right, followed by further litigation to resolve their particular cases,followed by further litigation before the D. C. Circuit— where they could have started had they invoked the DTA procedure. Not Congress, whose attempt to “determine— through democratic means—how best” to balance the security of the American people with the detainees’ liberty interests, see Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U. S. 557, 636 (2006) (BREYER, J., concurring), has been unceremoniously brushed aside. Not the Great Writ, whose majesty is hardly enhanced by its extension to a jurisdictionally quirky outpost, with no tangible benefit to anyone. Not the rule of law, unless by that is meant the rule of lawyers, who will now arguably have a greater role than military and intelligence officials in shaping policy for alien enemy combatants. And certainly not the American people, who today lose a bit more control over the conduct of this Nation’s foreign policy to unelected, politically unaccountable judges. I respectfully dissent."
UPDATE :
The District Court judges in Washington who will hear the detainees’ habeas challenges mandated by the Supreme Court will meet soon to decide how to proceed, that Court announced shortly after the Supreme Court ruled. Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth said “I expect we’ll call in the lawyers for both sides to see what suggestions they have for how we can approach our task most effectively and efficiently.”
.
Wild Thing's comment.....
Lock and load comes to mind.
It was bad enough when McCain said he would close GITMO the day after he becomes President and how all on the left want to shut it down too. And now this????!!!
“The Nation will live to regret what the Court had done today”
No truer words.
Supreme Court, for the first time ever, extended rights under the U.S. constitution to enemy combatants who have never set foot on U.S. soil.
Unbelievable!
This is just outrageous. Never before in the history of US warfare have we had to go out and Mirandize prisoners of war. That's what we're going to effectively have to do. We're going to have to read prisoners of war their rights just as we would a thief at the local convenience store. These 270 prisoners now have access to the US Constitution as though they are citizens.
This is a victory for the enemy. It is a disgrace. is bad for the country. This is bad for US national security.
Posted by Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 03:55 AM
Comments
So the islamofascist jihadist terrorists have more RIGHTS than the Nazis at Nuremburg in 1945-1946? And Nazis were HUNG their too? Let's release KLM and the other GITMO boy scouts to 'House of Congress' arrest where Pelosi and Reid can supervise them! "One nation under Allah, and divided..."
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at June 13, 2008 05:19 AM
Release the 270 islamofascist jihadists too:
* Cal-Berkeley University (50)
* University of Wisconsin (50)
* ACLU home confinement (25)
* NAACP home confinement (25)
* NY Times (25)
* Washington Post (25)
* Sean Penn home confinement (10)
* George Soros (10)
* Rest to CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS (50)!
Posted by: drstrangeloveb52isok at June 13, 2008 05:49 AM
The message should clearly be to take no more prisoners, but rather to send them to their Allah immediately upon confrontation. Our troops must be very proud of the liberal left when they take prisoners only to have them released and returned to terrorize again. WTF?? It should make every American citizen very proud to have their tax dollars defending the enemies of their country.
Posted by: Bob at June 13, 2008 07:42 AM
Another slap in the face to our Troops , George Bush, and Conservatives. Now they can return to their homeland and live to Jhad again- more beheadings, kidnappings more dead soldiers! Our court system fails us on a daily basis, why would the Supreme Court be any different? Their rulings on 10 Comandments - Church and State - homosexuals etc--- and now this. It is just some more of that political correctness that is eating away at the foundation of this Country!
Posted by: cheryl at June 13, 2008 10:03 AM
As a nation we have lost our sovereignty, forfeited to the United Nations and the International Court of the Hague Netherlands.
It isn't enough that the Dutch have let Islam take over their country, it appears that Islam has taken over not only the Hague but the UN as well. Our Communists and the ACLU won this for them.
"The true, imminent danger to America and to all nations seeking peace and good will stems from widespread acceptance of the monstrous falsehood that in order to live in an "interdependent" world, all nation-states must yield their sovereignty to the United Nations " excerped from GLOBAL TYRANNY ...STEP BY STEP, by William F. Jasper.
The UN, started by FDR, ratified by Truman, brought out into the open by Joe McCarthy as a communist organization and squelched by CBS's Edward R. Murrow. Let's go back to Camelot and thank John F. Kennedy for his contribution also.
Posted by: Jack at June 13, 2008 10:34 AM
Obviously the majority of our Supreme Court does not know what war is. They certainly don't understand what winning a war means.
This is a sad day, but it reflects the mindset of the American judiciary. Do they ever stop to think what has happened to almost ever American captured or kidnapped by islamist terrorists or 30 years?
All the way from the lowest ranking JAG lawyer to the SCOTUS, our judiciary is against our victory.
Posted by: TomR at June 13, 2008 10:35 AM
This really is a load of crap.4years ago my next
door neighbor was recalled and sent to gitmo,He
said the way we treat the prisnors makes you sick,
he told me we do every thing but kiss their ass
3 meals a day acording to the koran,clean cloths
clean bunks and yard time.The international Red
Cross has an office on Gitmo so we are under the gun from them.He also said they are just like con's in prison here,they gas the gards, make weapons etc,etc.One way to solve the problem "Don't take prisoners"..Say why do Lawyers
only have 2 pallbearers at their funeral???
A garbage can only has 2 handles, yuk,yuk...
Posted by: Tincan Sailor at June 13, 2008 10:42 AM
Wild Thing,
Please remember that the Supreme Court only upheld the provisions of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. It states, "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The 14th Amendment never states that this right shall only be available to US citizens. It unequivically states: "any person". Please direct your critcism toward the Congress and the Presidency since it is evident that they have not bothered to read the Constitution. If you don't like the ruling, get the Constitution amended. That is the way the Constitution works.
Please study the Constitution closely and read the Federalist. You are coming very close to sounding like a foreigner and not an American.
Respectfully,
Robin E. Roberts
MAJ, USA (R)
Posted by: Robin E. Roberts at June 13, 2008 12:42 PM
Major,
Since when did Jihadist, Terrorists or enemy Combatants, become US Citizens ?
But according to you Our Constitution provides protection to every jerkwater dickhead in the world ? Thats non-sense.
Those few amendments all written and approved in the late 1860s' had to do with the Slavery Question.
Even in the Federalist Papers do not accord enemy combatants any status better than Prisoner of War.
Sounding like a foreigner, ???? Excuse me, where do you think these 5 liberal judges get their case law in the first place, foreign case law. Which is totally wrong. They are supposed to be following the constitution as their role is described.
These 5 morons found there reason for granting Hebeaus, in the same nebulous area that they found their abortion ruling. It aint there either, they are legislating from the bench.
This stupid ruling will also increase the enemy casualties, who the hell wants to take prisoners, when they are treaated like a common criminal.
Posted by: Mark at June 13, 2008 01:12 PM
Mark a huge thank you! Great comment and thank you!!!
I agree since when did they become US Citizens.
I will be back later to finish answering comments.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 02:47 PM
Darth, it sure seems so. This is so disgusting to see this happening.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:16 PM
drstrangeloveb52isok, there's a plan, thanks.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:23 PM
Bob, exactly, they sure don't care how this makes our troops feel. All their hard work and the danger they are in to catch these guys then the courts and lawyers doing what they can to help the prisoners.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:26 PM
Cheryl......."It is just some more of that political correctness that is eating away at the foundation of this Country! "....well said Cheryl and it sure is!!
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:28 PM
Jack thank you for the link.
Never ever will I understand why people have not fought back, I mean even the few sensible leaders we have had over time. There had to have been those that hated what has been happening over the years and yet they kept silent or didn't even make waves. Of course now with the internet we get the word on a lot of things as they happen but even so we can only do so much as citizens. waaaaaa
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:33 PM
Tom I agree they really don't get it. I don't care how much they know about law vs. what I would know. Wrong is wrong in any language legal or otherwise.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:35 PM
Tincan Sailor, thank you for sharing about your neighbor and what he told you.
Love your joke too.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:38 PM
Major shall I say if you are a Major as I do not know for sure, you sound like a lawyer and a leftie lawyer at that.
All I have to say is read what Mark wrote to you he said it best.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 06:43 PM
There is one sure cure for Gitmo,"Close It" and from now on leave the non-uniformed combatents
on the field of battle.One shot one kill. No
problem no more...I'm sure as hell that if one
of our troops was taken by aL-Qada or the Taliban
they would get the warm and fuzzy treatment,right?
Posted by: Tincan Sailor at June 13, 2008 08:57 PM
Tincan Sailor, when they have taken one of our troops they have been tortured and beheaded most of the time and literally cut into pieces. Damn that was even hard to type how awful.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 13, 2008 11:44 PM
