Why do Republicans hate the Constitution?
posted by
Wally
8:56 AM
The United States Senate celebrated this week's 220th anniversary of the Constitution by failing to endorse the restoration of the habeas corpus protections that legal scholar Albert Venn Dicey once described as being "worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty."
Of all the insults to the nation's founding principles that have been recorded in this era of undeclared wars, unwarranted spying and unlimited executive excess, none is more galling than this one.
That a single senator, having sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, would vote against the renewal of habeas corpus protections ought to be a shock to the system.
That 43 of them -- enough to block a cloture motion that would have allowed the Senate majority to undo the damage done by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 -- is evidence of the depth to which the Republic has sunk. The founders of the American experiment left no doubt of the commitment of the new United States to the rule of law and right. While Madison, Mason and their contemporaries assumed that habeas corpus protections would be embraced and respected by all Americans who understood the point of their revolt against the British crown, they specifically added a notation to the Constitution stating that, "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." Habeas Corpus was first established as a fundamental right in the Magna Carta in 1215 AD (probably before then, actually, but it was formally written up as a fundamental right at that time). Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the king's subjects, whether free or fettered - most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, meaning that they had rights against unlawful imprisonment. No wonder Republicans don't like it - they don't think King George should have to renounce any rights, or be bound by any laws.
What the Republicans (and Joe Lieberman) did on Wednesday when they filibustered the Restoration of Habeas Corpus Act was nothing less than directly, blatantly, and very vocally violate their oath to uphold the Constitution. In so doing, they demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they disagree with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights - rights first established 800 years ago - before the white man even had an inkling that America (north or south) even existed. They call themselves Americans and patriots? Bullshit. Let's call them what they are: Traitors.
Bush's Amerikkka
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