There is No Justice For All

baltimoresun.com - U.S. detention tests scope of antiterror law

U.S. detention tests scope of antiterror law By Laura Sullivan

Justices take up cases of 2 citizens held 2 years; No charges; legal aid delayed; Unbridled authority vs. rights of Americans

The Bush administration yielded no ground before the Supreme Court on Wednesday in arguing that the open-ended military detention of U.S. citizens as enemy combatants, without criminal charges or access to lawyers, is justified both in law and as policy. The article goes on to tell of lawyers questioning the extent of the authority of the President in ordering killings and torture of detainees who have not even had an opportunity to defend themselves in court or even review any charges against them. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wondered, “If the law is what the executive says it is,” she said, “what is it that would be a check against torture?” Absolutely nothing, there are no checks and balances on the President’s claim of executive authority, and until someone stands up to him and challenges that authority with the overriding authority of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, his claimed authority is going to go unchecked. The cases are Hamdi vs. Rumsfeld, No. 03-6696, and Rumsfeld vs. Padilla, No. 03-1027 in the U.S. Supreme Court. The two men are United States citizens being indefinitely detained by the U.S. government, and they have been sitting in a Charleston, SC, Navy brig for the past two years.

Meanwhile, Bush and Cheney will jointly testify behind closed doors to the 9/11 Commission today, and they will NOT be under oath, and no transcript or broadcast of their testimony will be released to the public. Handwritten notes by a commission aide and two members of the president’s legal team will be the only record of the meeting. The absence of a taped record also allows the administration to avoid the embarrassment of having to explain why, when the president is asked questions, the vice president answers. The absurdity of the president and vice president demanding that there be no official record of their meeting with the commission would be the subject of a congressional outcry and a constant media battering of the administration if Bush and Cheney were members of another political party, say the Democrats. Can you imagine Bill Clinton getting away with something like this?

No, me neither.