Thursday, September 28, 2006
Kay Kills Habeas Corpus
According to TPMmuckraker, the Senate just Killed Habeas Amendment on Torture Bill:
As the voting record shows, once again our own Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is rubber-stamping the Bush administration's unconstitutional power grabs.
This is dire. As Josh Marshall says,
The Senate just killed an amendment to ensure federal courts could review the legitimacy of individual' imprisonment on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. [See Wikipedia definition of habeas corpus.] The amendment had been proposed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It is a fundamental protection woven into the fabric of our Nation," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who supported the measure. It was defeated 48-51, largely along party lines.
As the voting record shows, once again our own Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is rubber-stamping the Bush administration's unconstitutional power grabs.
This is dire. As Josh Marshall says,
this law allows the president to detain any US citizen in the United States and hold him or her without trial forever.
All the president needs to do is find that you are an 'enemy combatant'. And it's entirely his call.
...In essence, it means that the entire criminal justice system in this country becomes discretionary in the hands of the president.
