Supreme Court rules Guantanamo prisoners have right to sue in U.S. courts
Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers - June 12, 2008 11:17:37 AM
WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their extended imprisonment in federal court, and struck down as inadequate an alternative review system set up by Congress.
Repudiating a key tenet of the Bush administration’s war-on-terror policy, the court’s 5-4 majority concluded the foreigners held in Guantanamo Bay retain the same habeas corpus rights as U.S. residents.
“Some of these petitioners have been in custody for the past six years with no definitive judicial determination as to the legality of their detention,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. “Their access to the writ is necessary to determine the lawfulness of their status, even if, in the end, they do not obtain the relief they seek.”
_______________
The court’s conservative wing, including Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, at times with sharp words of their own.
“The nation will live to regret what the court has done today,” Scalia wrote.
Big surprise on the dissenting judges. Who would've guessed that one?
How much longer 'til the bushco crowd is brought up on war crimes charges ? ? ? ?
4 comments:
Bushco crowd brought up on war crimes charges??? I laugh at that. No, really. I do not see that happening at all, based on the last 8 years and EVERYTHING just being deflected off of them. Was the Valerie Plaime case settled as promised by GW - Nope. The list goes on and on and I am not going to suck up all your comment space. I pray for justice but fear that it will be an elusive little creature.
It's these critical 5/4 splits that I had in mind when I said that I would vote for whichever Democrat gets the nomination for President. Republican gets in, there goes the Court ...
Speaking of voting, do you know how we go about registering and voting once we're in Canada?
We just called our last voting district in WI and they sent us absentee ballots. Easy peasy.
As Doug said, you would contact your Seattle voting district to obtain absentee ballots.
Of course, the Canadian voting won't happen 'til we're citizens.
Three years minimum for us to be instrumental in removing harperco . . . .
Post a Comment