Habeus hooray

On June 12th, 2008 the Supreme Court came to a monumental decision in the Boumediene vs. Bush case. The Supreme Court Justices came to a decision by a margin of 5-4 that prisoners held at U.S. Navy’s Guantanamo Bay were entitled to protection by the US Constitution’s habeas corpus rights. Almost immediately there was a cry of outage and exaggerated scenarios that were heard from almost all members of the Republican party.
Rudy Giuliani quickly went on record stating, “The remarks yesterday by several people in the Obama campaign that if bin Laden were taken to Guantanamo he would be given habeas corpus rights, is startling.”
Mr. Giuliani failed to describe why this was something that was so “startling” and implied that if Bin Laden was taken to Gitmo that he would be released due to this ruling by the bi-partisan Supreme
Court. In all actuality all this ruling would mean is that the United States would have to justify why he was incarcerated under rule of law. I don’t think anyone in the United States could say with a straight face that even the greenest prosecuting attorney couldn’t easily come up with enough evidence to detain Bin Laden legally.
Yet the Republicans used the Supreme Court ruling to attack Senator Obama and insinuate that due to his support of the Supreme Court decision he was more concerned with the rights of terrorists than keeping Americans safe.
The fact is that we again are being subjected to the calculated campaign of fear that we all have had the treat of experiencing for nearly the past 7 years in the hopes that the nation will be scared into electing a Republican to the White House yet again. The fact is that the United States Military currently has and has had for quite sometime the authority to kill Bin Laden if they found him so Mr. Giuliani’s “startling” scenario really doesn't make too much sense.
In the case that he was apprehended alive and taken to Guantanamo Bay
(however unlikely that may be), the right of habeas corpus only would give him the right to ask for a hearing. McCain’s argument is that there may be sensitive information that is released to the public in
the case that there was a trial regardless of the fact that habeas corpus does not allow the detainee the right to a particular venue
for the hearing. All this ruling has done is state that if a person is wrongly being detained the federal courts now have the power to request their release. Doesn’t that sound like a reasonable ruling?
Why is there so much concern that there has to be evidence presented to detain a person on American soil regardless of what country they come from?
I’m quite certain that there are detainees that deserve to be detained at Guantanamo Bay. I’m quite sure that there are detainees there that were involved in actions that took the lives of Americans.
If they are terrorists then they should be charged as terrorists and handled as the court deems fit. What I also am sure of is that there probably are a few that have nothing to do with terrorism being held
there. I’m sure that there are a few that are being held on American soil that have no evidence that indicates that they were involved in any terrorist activities. If there is even one detainee that is being held in Guantanamo Bay or any other facility of detention on U.S. soil without evidence or reasoning as to why then they should have to the right to go before the court to plead their case. That is one of the crucial rights that we have that make us a civilized and democratic society. It is a basic human right that is the cornerstone of the United States Constitution. The document that democracy is built on.
The very idea that we are trying to push into the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq. What Mr. McCain and the members of the Republican party need to remember that defending America is more complex than relying on military force. America was founded on the idea that all men are created equal and have the right to be treated as such.
Losing sight of that idea and not defending it is a disgrace to our founding fathers and is the first step in the very wrong direction toward hypocrisy for the sake of a presidential election campaign talking point.