Misblog

Originally Published June 18, 2007; Updated and Republished June 18, 2008:

Please read, study, and cherish the United States Supreme Court (US) fragile opinion¹ of Boumediene v Bush (06-1195 pdf 650K)—it repels a coordinated constitutional usurpation that make the Nixonian usurpation and abuses look like a grade-school exercise.

"The [Habeas Corpus Suspension] Clause is designed to protect against cyclical abuses² of the writ by the Executive and Legislative Branches." --US, 06-1195, 553 U. S. ____ (2008), dicta--

Web:

• UPDATED 06/18/2008 Audio, Diane Rehm discusses Boumediene v Bush with Shayana Kadidal (managing attorney Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative), Glenn Sulmasy, John Hutson, Kori Schake

  It is amazing that McCain would criticize Boumediene, a decision which will lessen the likelihood of unjust or illegal or torturous detentions, which characterizes his own Vietnam detention.

  Those in the administration who wrongfully and cynically tried to shoehorn terrorism into a war paradigm in order to justify their cruel, inhumane, and torturous behavior ought not to be heard to complain when they're latter jerked up short by our United States Supreme Court and the Rule of Law.

  Most of us are still wondering how it is that that it takes $2 trillion dollars (and growing), alienation of the entire world, starting two wars (and maybe a third) to fetch and jail several thousand terrorists (most then centralized in Afghanistan and Pakistan but now fully decentralized and dispersed).

  The administration's cynical abuse of the war paradigm has increased the number of terrorists while decentralizing and dispersing them, thereby making us more unsafe. It has also made law enforcement’s job much more complicated and difficult. Furthermore, it has reduced the multinational cooperation we so desperately need to reduce and eliminate terrorism.

Res:

• UPDATED 06/14/2008 The Suspension Clause: English Text, Imperial Contexts, and American Implications(1M pdf), Paul D. Halliday and G. Edward White 94 Va. L. Rev. 575 (2008)
• Oyez, Boumediene v. Bush - Oral Argument (mp3 and transcript)

-----notes-----

1. The constitutional usurpers (many working behind the scene) are unlikely to pay more than lip service to this opinion.

Only their complete removal and restricted access to power will repel further attacks on our powerful, majestic Constitution and its pluralistic representative form of government.

2. We owe a great debt of gratitude to organizations like Center for Constitutional Rights, ACLU, and NACDL all persistently worked to mitigate these “cyclical abuses”. Individuals like Michael Ratner, Joseph Margulies, Charles Swift, Linda Greenhouse, Neal Katyal, Norman Reimer, Anthony Romero, Karen Greenberg, and many more were early into the fight and haven't left, yet...just in case the administration reads the Supreme Court dicta "cyclical abuses" as "cynical abuses"!