Judges put Bush one step closer to his dream of being Dictator
posted by
Wally
8:21 AM
Judges agree that Bush can ignore Habeas Corpus protections
In a victory for the White House, a U.S. appeals court Tuesday threw out the legal claims brought on behalf of the hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and ruled that they do not have a right to plead their innocence in an American court.
The ruling sets the stage for a historic showdown in the Supreme Court over whether the White House and Congress can deny habeas corpus -- the right to go before a judge and ask to be released -- to some people who are held for years without charges.
"This decision empowers the president to do whatever he wishes to prisoners without any legal limitation, so long as he does it offshore. (It) encourages such notorious practices as extraordinary rendition and contempt for international human rights law," said Shayana Kadidal, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.LINK The Bush administration claims that the so called "war on terror" gives him extraordinary powers to sidestep the Constitution and ignore the Bill of Rights. To that I say bullshit. There have been far more urgent and dangerous threats to this and other nations than religious whackjobs with box cutters in the 792 years since the Magna Carta was issued, or the 328 years since the Habeas Corpus act was codified in England, or even the 216 years since a little document called the Bill of Rights was ratified.
While it is certain that this ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court, it is of some concern that a court as high as a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals would allow to stand such a blatant affront to the basic liberties outlined in the Constitution. It is also worrying that this will reach the Supreme Court that has been stacked by Bush with right-wing idealogues who promote the doctrine of Unitary Executive powers (discussed further here).
If the Supreme Court sides with Bush on this, he will have indeed taken several large strides toward dictatorship. As President, he will be above the law - able to do whatever he wants to whoever he wants. The courts will have not only undercut the power of Congress to "balance" the power of the President, they will also have given away their own authority to do the same. What's worse, they will have given credence to Nixon's words "Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal."
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