Thursday, June 12, 2008

Habeas Corpus - still not dead in America

The good news:
Published: June 13, 2008
The Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration’s argument that the Guantánamo Bay detainees had adequate protections under a 2005 law.
The bad news:
...the Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, on Thursday in a historic decision on the balance between personal liberties and national security.
Yeah, four Justices thought that prisoners of our government did not have the right to habeas corpus. No surprise who they were, but it's nice to know that three of them are under 60.

Justice Stevens (who voted in the majority) is 88.

Late Edit:
The case is Boumediene et al v. Bush PDF

Justice Kennedy is in good form (emphasis added):
the Government’s view is that the Constitution has no effect there, at least as to noncitizens, because the United States disclaimed formal sovereignty in its 1903 lease with Cuba. The Nation’s basic charter cannot be contracted away like this. The Constitution grants Congress and the President the power to acquire, dispose of, and govern territory, not the power to decide when and where its terms apply. To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say “what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177.

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