PRODUCE THE BODY

THE BODY IN QUESTION is the detainee at Guantanamo, but habeas corpus also means the government needs to produce the evidence by which right someone’s body is held.  The Graham amendment lauded by some for clearing the courts of too many nuisance claims by what the United States calls “terrorists” can hide some mistakes.  The government is also holding “enemy combatants” even after they have been proven innocent of charges.  [story]

Adel is innocent. I don't mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist. The whole thing was a mistake: The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken.
The military people reached this conclusion, and they wrote it down on a memo, and then they classified the memo and Adel went from the hearing room back to his prison cell. He is a prisoner today, eight months later. And these facts would still be a secret but for one thing: habeas corpus.
Only habeas corpus got Adel a chance to tell a federal judge what had happened. Only habeas corpus revealed that it wasn't just Adel who was innocent -- it was Abu Bakker and Ahmet and Ayoub and Zakerjain and Sadiq -- all Guantanamo "terrorists" whom the military has found innocent.

THE GOVERNMENT IS UNWILLING to admit mistakes, closing “loopholes” by which prisoners can appeal to United States courts means jail doors close of them possibly forever.  Lost beyond their liberty is simple American justice.

AND THEN THERE ARE the prisoners under age eighteen. Hell is for children.

PREVIOUS RELATED HERETIK POST [Less Than Nothing]

OTHER VOICES IN THE SOUND AND FURY
[Think Progress] According to Knight Ridder, the Senate voted to approve the Graham amendment “after an hour of debate.” It says much about the value that Senate conservatives have for our basic rights that they would roll them back after virtually zero deliberation. 

THE HERETIK NOTES how quickly our leaders signed away our rights after September Eleventh on the Patriot Act. With people who are not United States citizens but people nonetheless, we jump even more quickly into the amoral abyss.

JUSTICE DETAINED AT GUANTANAMO [Denver Post]Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor stated in mid-2004 that "a state of war is not a blank check for the president." The president is not free as commander in chief to "turn our system of checks and balances on its head." Even Justice Antonin Scalia, in a dissenting message to the president, added that "if civil rights are to be curtailed during wartime, it must be done openly and democratically."
As Joseph Margulies, who was lead counsel in the Rasul case, has written, "Sometimes called the Great Writ, habeas has been part of our law for more than 200 years and is one of the only protections of individual liberty enshrined in the Constitution (as opposed to the protections subsequently added in the Bill of Rights)."
The writ of habeas corpus is supposed to be a rocket vehicle for justice, ensuring that no one is long imprisoned without good cause being shown. Many of these prisoners are entering their fourth year of confinement without any due process. [via Talk Left]

WHAT SEEMS SO EXPEDIENT now, the future may look upon less kindly. The greatest damage done to our liberty is often done not by our enemies at our throats, but by ourselves following the feeling in our guts.  Marjorie Cohn puts things in a historical context.

Habeas Corpus, known as The Great Writ, is the final bastion of liberty for those unjustly held. The last time this country suspended Habeas Corpus was for the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II. That travesty is now universally recognized as a shameful chapter in our nation's history. To suspend The Great Writ once again, while allegations of systematic torture continue to emerge from US prisons, will threaten our Constitution and render "quaint" our democracy.

THE DANGER OF MAKING DECISIONS in time of war, even undeclared war, as we are in now is that vengeance trumps justice.  As these sad souls lose their liberty, we the captors lose our souls.

ALSO RECOMMENDED
[Obsidian Wings] It drives me crazy that they may have voted for this amendment because they misunderstood not only the underlying facts, but what the bill itself actually does. Habeas does not necessarily mean a civilian criminal trial. Habeas does not necessarily mean a civilian criminal trial! It means you can go to court, and petition the court to require the executive to "produce the body"--to prove that he is detaining you lawfully, and has not just thrown you into prison because he wants to and he controls the army & police.

THE HERETIK APPLAUDS the efforts by Katherine and Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings on this issue. Also visit Jeralyn Merritt the Godmother of Soul for regular outstanding contributionns to understanding what we lose if the shortsighted win.