-- U.S.
Constitution, Article I, Section 9
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."
-- The Sixth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution
"Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law,..."
"To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will
would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say 'what the law is.'"
"Security subsists too in fidelity to freedom's first principles. Chief among these are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers,..."
-- From the Supreme Court decision in
Boumediene v. Bush/Al Odah v.
United States
June 12, 2008
I planned on posting these bits of various articles and there links on another BLOG I have But...
Anyway here they are.
It's to important for us to not discuss.
Pedro Angel Serrano
AKA "Old Man Pedro"
AKA "Papa Skin"
AKA "The Triple O.G."
"...liberties first principles."
By David G. Savage, from Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 14, 2008
WASHINGTON -- When the Supreme Court goes on recess at the end of this month, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will be off to his summer teaching job in Salzburg, Austria. For the 19th year, he will teach a class called "Fundamental Rights in Europe and the United States" for the McGeorge Law School.
He tells his American and European students that the belief in individual freedom and the respect for human dignity transcends national borders. There is, he once said in an interview, "some underlying common shared aspiration" in legal systems that protects the rights and liberties of all.
That international perspective was on display Thursday as Kennedy spoke for the Supreme Court in extending legal rights to the foreign military prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Security subsists too in fidelity to freedom's first principles. Chief among these are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers," Kennedy said.
The 5-4 ruling highlighted the sharp divide over the law and the war on terrorism. The dissenters, agreeing with the Bush administration, said foreigners captured abroad in the war on terrorism had no rights in American courts.
Justice Antonin Scalia dissented with the decision "to extend the right of habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war." The ruling "warps our Constitution," he wrote in his dissent."
The majority, led by Kennedy, was more in tune with the views across Europe and of civil libertarians in this country, who have condemned the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a "legal black hole" where foreigners are shackled and held in harsh conditions without due process of law. The justices in the majority said that when U.S. authorities take someone into custody, they must offer them the basic legal protections, including the right to plead for their freedom before an independent judge....
To Read more go to,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scotus14-2008jun14,0,3463236.story
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From The Virginian-Pilot
June 13, 2008
"...The court's moderate majority ruled for the third time that prisoners may not be held indefinitely without charges and have a right to habeas corpus - to make the government justify their detention before a judge.
Antonin Scalia - he of the sacrosanct Constitution, inviolable and sound - objected to the reasoning of the majority by rash references to "war with radical Islamists" and claimed that the decision "will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."
Thankfully, he could convince only three of his colleagues that the Constitution must be abandoned for war. The opinion of Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, stands as an especially sharp rebuke: "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.
"It was the third time the court has validated the basic rights of detainees held at the Guantanamo prison, and that the justices have rejected the administration's attempts to sock away the accused without recourse. Inch by inch, in response to previous Supreme Court rulings, the administration has grudgingly agreed to provide some minor legal protections, but only the slimmest ones - and as Thursday's ruling attests, not enough...."
To Read more go to,
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/06/reason-prevails-habeas-corpus
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By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
"...The court's membership has changed in recent years, and it has zigzagged on high-profile social policy dilemmas. Yet a slim majority has voiced a consistent message on Guantanamo cases: Congress and the president cannot go it alone. The third branch must ensure that rights are not violated.
Dissenting justices have routinely denounced that message, and some have taken the extraordinary step of reading portions of their opinions from the mahogany bench. Dueling readings on Thursday showcased how narrowly divided the justices are on the controversial U.S. naval base in Cuba and the president's latitude on detainee policies...."
To read the rest go to, http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080613/a_courtinside13.art.htm
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From Tom Head,
Your Guide to Civil Liberties.
"...It is an unsafe and inconvenient time to free the Guantanamo detainees, but there will never be a safe or convenient time. The question now before our leaders is whether they will do the safe and convenient thing, or live up to their own international human rights standards. We should contact them and make our views known...."
To read more go to, http://civilliberty.about.com/b/2007/07/16/the-habeas-corpus-debate.htm
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