Congress must protect detainees' rights

posted Sunday, 26 April 2009

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that foreign detainees were not "persons" under the Constitution or law and thus could not claim the fundamental Constitutional right not to be tortured. So now, it seems that two out of the three branches of government have failed. This is a piece of radical right-wing judicial activism which has no place in the Constitution. The Constitution does not limit in any way the prohibitions of cruel and unusual punishment by making an exception for foreign detainees. And the Obama administration is sticking its head in the sand, trying to pretend that torture never happened and sweep the whole thing under the rug. While they commendably put a stop to torture and are in the process of closing Guantanamo and releasing documents, they are otherwise sticking their heads in the sand.

If the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is correct that the detainees have no Constitutional rights that the SCOTUS does not specifically state, then that makes a mockery out of the court system. That means that the courts become little more than kangaroo courts which do nothing but dutifully rubber stamp the President's decisions under the unitary executive theory. Therefore, Congress must put a stop to this legal farce -- they must pass a law stating that foreign detainees have the same rights under the US Constitution that US citizens have.

This decision could well be overruled -- it could well be that the judges erred because they ignored the Equal Protection Clause that requires all people to be treated equally under the laws of this land. But while Bush is gone, the radical right-wing activist judges that he appointed live on to do his dirty work well after he has left office.

tags: constitution dc circuit court of appeals barack obama congress scotus law courts torture guantanamo bay

links: digg this del.icio.us technorati reddit

comments

««	Nov 2009					»»
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Blogorama

Google Ads

BlogHub

Google Ads II

Google Ads III

Search Box

Calendar

Mailing List

PayPal

Universal Human Brotherhood

Solutions and Ideas

Debunking the right

News outlets

Communities

Blogs

Elected Officials

Washington

Groups

Congress must protect detainees' rights