Habeas Corpus

It's back. The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the concept of Habeas Corpus has legs. Essentially the President can't just take people, lock them up, and throw away the key. They have to figure out some way to process such people. Or that's how James Ross describes it in an article for Salon.

. . . the court makes clear that Guantánamo can't be a law-free zone. The main reason the administration started sending those apprehended in the "global war on terror" to Guantánamo in 2002 was so that it could hold people without intrusive lawyers and courts getting in the way. The court said no; detainees can challenge their cases before the courts.

I don't know why Conservatives thought this could be a long term solution anyway. But apparently they did - Rush Limbaugh ties this decision into an over arching plan for Liberals to destroy America.

This is what many of us who ring the clarion bells are trying to get people to understand. This is not a bunch of little idiots that write laws in Congress with their unintended consequences. . . .

When it comes to the liberal judiciary, these are leftists, folks. They have every intention of changing the way this country looks, cutting this country down to size. I've been through all the reasons. They think we're too big. We're stealing the world's resources. We're destroying the planet with global warming. We've got this idiot president they can't figure out how to beat. He's so stupid he keeps beating them, and we gotta get rid of him. He's illegitimate, his war is unjust; his policies are unjust. Look, there's a systematic desire -- and it's been going on for quite a while -- to change or get rid of the institutions and traditions that have always defined and maintained the country's greatness. It's a very serious problem.

I suppose it is hard to defend a crazy program with sane arguments.