From Amnesty International
The Supreme Court will hear Bush administration lawyers attempt to defend the indefensible: that the President can hold people indefinitely, without charge and without question. With fundamental human rights principles on the line let's hope the Supreme Court rejects this lawlessness and demands an end to the injustice that flows from it.
A thousand miles from the Supreme Court steps, Amnesty International will be observing another crucial hearing today. This one will take place at Guantánamo Bay and while it will get less press attention, it is no less important.
While the Supreme Court considers whether or not Congress improperly took away the writ of habeas corpus from detainees in Guantánamo, a hearing will be convened to determine whether or not Salim Ahmed Hamdan is an "unlawful enemy combatant" and subject to trial by military commission. Under the Military Commissions Act, "unlawful enemy combatants" cannot challenge the evidence brought before them or object to being convicted on evidence obtained through brutal means.
The two hearings are not unrelated.
Both challenge the administration's attacks on our system of justice. Both challenge the assertion that fear, not freedom, guides our country. But even more important, both hearings present a clear opportunity to move our nation back on track -- to a place of respect for truth, justice and liberty. As four Supreme Court Justices put it, "[I]if this Nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny."
The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in relation to the Guantánamo detentions on whether the Military Commissions Act of 2006 has unlawfully stripped the US courts of jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions from alien "enemy combatants" held in US custody.
Habeas corpus is a fundamental procedure guaranteed under international law under which detainees can challenge the lawfulness and conditions of their detention in an independent and impartial court. It also promotes state accountability by providing an independent judicial check on executive or legislative abuse.
This is a crucial moment for human rights and the rule of law. Indeed, the questions pending before the Supreme Court go beyond the rights of detainees through to the very concepts of accountable government.
With the US courts effectively removed from their role as an independent check on executive action, the past six years have seen a litany of abuse -- from secret detainee transfers, arbitrary detentions, cruel treatment and unfair trial procedures, through to the international crimes of torture and enforced disappearance. Guantánamo has been a core part of this unlawful detention regime.
Habeas corpus is not a technical nicety; it is a basic safeguard against government abuse. Restoring this safeguard in full and for all detainees is long overdue.
The administration chose Guantánamo Bay as a location to hold detainees in the "war on terror" because it believed that under existing US jurisprudence the courts should not be able to consider habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of foreign nationals captured abroad and held on territory that was ultimately part of Cuba.
Six years on, and now aided by the Military Commissions Act, this unlawful executive detention regime remains essentially intact.The 'rights-free' zone that the USA has attempted to create in Guantánamo cries out for full and effective judicial scrutiny and the restoration of due process. Anything less will not meet the USA's international legal obligations.
This will be the third time that the US Supreme Court has considered aspects of the Guantánamo regime, and follows Rasul v. Bush in 2004 and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in 2006. Although these rulings went against the government in a number of ways, the administration has interpreted the decisions in ways that further its objective of avoiding or delaying judicial scrutiny and violate the internationally recognized rights of the detainees.
The Court is expected to rule on the Boumediene v. Bush case in the first half of 2008, by which time the Guantánamo detentions would be well into their seventh year.
Help Tear Gitmo down.
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