It truly is an amazing time in our country where it took a 5-4 decision to rule the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 unconstitutional. This Act from the last Republican Congress was a smack in the face to the tenets of our democracy, that everyone get a fair trial within the United States. Of course Republicans argued then as did the four dissenters on the Court today (Chief Justice Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia) that Guantanamo Bay isn't technically the United States. Thankfully the other five justices had warm hearts and clearly-thinking heads when they came down with the decision.
From The Huffington Post:
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.
The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."
The extraordinary time is that George Bush is in power, not so much the fact that the United States has enemies that aren't nation-states. We were fighting pirates in the late 1700s off the Barbary Coast and have repelled other threats since then. September 11th does not give Bush the right to strip our Constitution and allow unequal rights to detainees merely because they are not taken to one of the fifty states. We have had Guantanamo in our possession for over 100 years without interruption and in the minds of the five justices (and most Americans) that counts as being under the jurisdiction of the United States.
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