Levellers

Gitmo Detainees Ask Courts to Allow Detention Challenges

The Bush administration has repeatedly sought to disallow Habeas corpus for anyone it designates an “enemy combatant” or a terror suspect. It getting Congress (including some cowardly Democrats who should be thrown out, too) to pass the so-called “Military Commissions Act,” it has again sought to deny detainees the right to challenge their detentions–not “guilty until proven innocent,” much less “innocent until proven guilty,” but “guilty with the system rigged so that you CAN’T prove innocence whether you are or are not.” They also sought to prevent the courts from judicial review which has been ruled unconstitutional since Marbury v. Madison in 1803. Now, detainees are asking the federal courts to allow Habeas challenges anyway.

If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rules that Habeas Corpus still applies, this challenge will end up in the Supreme Court. This current Court is very rightwing, but if it follows the precedent set just last year in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Military Commissions Act, in full or part, will be ruled unconstitutional. I pray we still have that check on otherwise unrestrained, arbitrary executive power.

The “rule of law” is not in itself justice. There are times for civil disobedience–disobeying Caesar to obey God (as one’s conscience understands God’s will) with full preparation to face the legal consequences. But, although the rule of law is not equal to justice–and certainly not the same as the gospel–it is an important check on arbitrary power. It is high time that the citizens of the U.S. (including U.S. Christians) reasserted the premise that no one, no president or politician, no one, is above the law. And EVERYONE, including people suspected of terrorist crimes, is entitled to the full protection of the law, including presumption of innocence, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, fair and open trials without hearsay evidence or evidence obtained by torture, and the right of Habeas corpus.

That won’t make us a “Christian nation” (a heretical notion with no biblical basis) or a “city set on a hill,” but it will go some way toward restoring us as a nation of laws attempting to be a democratic republic (not a plutocratic oligarchy or a dictatorship) that makes a real effort to protect human rights. That’ s a long way from the Kingdom of God, but it is still a good thing–far better than the alternatives.

November 2, 2006 Posted by Michael Westmoreland-White | U.S. politics | Comments Off on Gitmo Detainees Ask Courts to Allow Detention Challenges