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US Senate Fails To Reinstate Habeas Corpus
Khyber notes that yesterday a vote in the US Senate fell four votes short of what was needed to restore habeas corpus — the fundamental right of individauls to challenge government detention. Here is the record of the vote on the Cloture Motion to restore Habeas Corpus. Article 4 of the US Constitution states that habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless in cases of rebellion and invasion when the public safety may require it.
The only democrat who voted nay was Lieberman, who's not even a democrat any more. The problem is that the democrats don't have a 3/5 majority, even with 6 republicans voting outside their party. I think the people you need to be thanking about the republicans how stuck to their party line instead of doing what they know is right.
Thanks for your clarification, I concur there. To clarify your clarification, though, ALL rights that "we" and the founding fathers considered inherent are rights afforded to all humans, regardless of citizenship and government. Government should never have the power to censor speech or opinion, nor the power to search your person or property with proof and a warrant, nor the power to restrict what arms you own or carry, nor the power to jail/enslave someone without giving a reason for it -- and allowing that person, citizen or not, the ability to defend themselves quickly and with a jury of their peers (again, not necessarily citizens).
Government doesn't give you freedom, it doesn't grant you rights, and it isn't there to protect you from other individuals. The Federal government is there for four reasons: to PROTECT the inherent rights of individuals from any government or State, to coin money in gold or silver only, to call up militias of individuals in order to defend against a real attack within the borders of any State, and to defend against piracy on the high seas.
Right at the beginning...
"We the people of the United States of America" So where it says "the people" generally applies to citizens.
Yes there are some ambiguities that the courts have addressed (see MATHEWS v. DIAZ, 426 U.S. 67, for example), but just because it doesn't SAY "citizen" or "resident" or whatever doesn't mean it covers the world's population.
Obviously that "liberal media" we hear so much about.
Mod parent up, please (I'm using up mod points to post a followup). Here's a McClatchey story (with graphic), showing how bad the GOP filibuster threats have gotten. At the current rate, they will have forced cloture motions 153 times, three times the average over the past few years. All this to keep The Decider from having to take responsibility and veto something that the majority of US citizens approve of (like habeas corpus). While the reporting on these votes (including Webb's bill mandating more at-home time for troops serving in Iraq) is totally lame and misleading, I have to blame the Democrats for failing to make any stink about this at all. They need to be constantly harping about "obstructionist Republicans", etc. etc. Or, instead of just letting them threaten a filibuster, make them actually do it -- that would give the press a great story to report, and would force all these Republicans to explain how much they like torture, long tours of duty for soldiers, etc.
I'm sorry -- you can say what you want, but this makes the United States no better than Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castor or anyone else.
> habeas corpus is NOT constitutionally guaranteed to non-citizens captured outside of the US as terrorist suspects
This is a catch-22. We capture someone, call them a non-citizen terrorist suspect and because there is no habeas corpus, we now can lock them up indefinitely with no charges. That's the reason habeas corpus exists. Way back when, the King would lock up people with no recourse, no charges were necessary. It's a great way to deal with "the enemy" except we've defined the enemy as some ideological entity that could be anyone. Therefore, anyone can be "the enemy".
We have sunk down to the very level of dictators and extremists we have overthrown or claim to be fighting. Sadly, this is likely the exact outcome that someone like Bin Laden was hoping for. We essentially are turning on ourselves.
We apparently learned absolutely NOTHING from the 1950s communist scare. Just dig up all the communist scare tactics and replace the word "communist" with "terrorist".
The letter I've written to my two senators:
Mr. xxxxxxx,
I was shocked and appalled today by your "no" vote to reinstate habeas corpus via Specter Amdt. No. 2022. I believe that while terrorists are a threat to America, the threat of a government able to indefinitely detain it's own citizens without charge is greater. Habeas corpus is a basic human right dating back over 700 years, and America set out on the wrong path when we abandoned it. If people we have detained are criminals, let's please convict them in the manner that has served our great nation for over 200 years. I urge you to please change your position.
Sincerely,
Derek Anderson
http://kered.org
As you can read here, a Declaration of War and an authorization for military action are NOT the same thing.
We are not in a declared war with any state. It's kind of hard to declare a war against an ambiguous enemy. Enemy combatants are identified by behavior, not by uniform or flag. Since they are a militia of no government (and if they were, of no government we are at war with, since we have not declared war with any government that remains) these enemy combatants caught in acts of aggression are mere criminals and are not in fact prisoners of war.
Hence, if they are criminals, they should be detained and tried where they committed said acts of aggression.