A Dim Hope On Habeas

After the stunning dismissal of charges in two military tribunals a Guantanamo Bay, the Democrats in the Senate aren't wasting any time to capitalize on this opportunity to restore Constitutional rights:

A day after two military judges ruled against the Bush administration’s system for trying terrorism detainees, Democrats seized on the rulings on Tuesday as evidence that Congress should restore the right of those held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detentions.

Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the majority leader, said he would be willing to bring such legislation to the floor. The Senate Judiciary Committee is preparing to approve such a plan on Thursday.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the rulings on Monday in two cases added urgency to the push to restore detainees’ right to file habeas corpus suits. Congress eliminated that right last year while redesigning the military tribunals after the Supreme Court struck down the first plan.

Mr. Leahy criticized the administration for insisting on an approach to the tribunals “which even conservative courts say no to.”

The pathetic excuse by John Warner is that Congress shouldn't rush to change the law in response to the rulings, which is of course exactly what the Bush Administration did in creating these unworkable military commissions in the first place. The truth is that there aren't a lot of options to make this flawed system of tribunals work - they never even wrote an appeals process into it. The system should be scrapped, and restoring habeas corpus would move us down that road.

I'm glad to see that my Senator, Dianne Feinstein, is one of the cosponsors of the habeas corpus restoration bill. She also wants to add an amendment to close Guantanamo altogether. I don't see eye to eye with DiFi on everything, but she's been outspoken and principled on this issue. In addition, every Democratic Presidential candidate in the Senate is on board with this bill, as well as 18 Democrats in all and Arlen Specter.

Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy wants you to take action by contacting your Senators and asking them to support the restoration of habeas corpus. It's a fundamental right that it trule one of the dividing points of civilization. Please do what you can.