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SCOTUS Grants Guantanamo Prisoners Habeas Corpus

beebee and other readers sent word that the US Supreme Court has, by a 5 to 4 majority, ruled that the Constitution applies at Guantanamo. Accused terrorists can now go to federal court to challenge their continued detention (the right to habeas corpus), meaning that civil judges will now have the power to check the government's designation of Gitmo detainees as enemy combatants. This should remedy one of the major issues Human Rights activists have with the detention center. However, Gitmo is unlikely to close any time soon. The NYTimes reporting on the SCOTUS decision goes into more detail on the vigor of the minority opinion. McClatchy reports the outrage the decision has caused on the right, with one senator calling for a Constitutional amendment "to blunt the effect of this decision."

7 of 1,065 comments (clear)

  1. do a reverse mariel boatlift by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Funny

    cuba dumped some of its prisoners on the usa during the mariel boatlift in the early 1980s (not all of the refugees were prisoners)

    simply cede guantanamo bay back to cuba. "forget" to empty guantanamo bay out first. voila, new, "friendly" landlords

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  2. Re:About time... by gregbot9000 · · Score: 1, Funny

    woo-hoo I bet those detainees are going to party like it's 1679.

  3. Re:Sudden? by gregbot9000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    woo-hoo, Those detainees are going to be partying like it's 1679.

  4. Re:stupid, confusing war on terror... by rantingkitten · · Score: 3, Funny

    The war will be over when terror's governing body signs a formal surrender, or when we have crippled terror's troop count or logistical train to the point where terror cannot go on fighting. Don't you know anything about how this stuff works? I swear.

    --
    mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
  5. Re:Sudden? by kalirion · · Score: 4, Funny

    The US has become the monster in the night that people fear.

    We are Legend.

  6. Re:Sudden? by WombatDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Very informative. I can't mod you any higher so I'm just going to, ermmm, waste a few seconds of your time and a few bytes of your bandwidth instead.

    Ummm. Sorry.

  7. Re:Sudden? by Darby · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, it couldn't have hurt the food, unless the Italians tried to come up with haggis parmegioano.

    You're asserting that that would be *worse* than haggis already is?