Habeas Corpus: Working on Commissions
President Bush recently signed into law a significant piece of legislation that has raised a lot of questions -- and a lot of eyebrows. We asked CBSNews.com legal analyst Andrew Cohen to look at the bill on detainees, and tell us what it may mean. -- Ed.
Without overwhelming fanfare, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday “hosted” what the White House called an “online interactive forum” to answer questions about the landmark terror detainee legislation his friend and boss, President George W. Bush, signed into law earlier this week. The Attorney General, one of the architects of the Administration’s terror law policies, prefaced the Internet session by telling his fellow online chatters that the new law will “protect the rights of accused terrorists and the safety of the American people.”
The transcript of the event reads like the pep rally it was intended to be. And if the Attorney General actually typed out his responses I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. But one theme struck me as particularly interesting. Over and over again, Gonzales was forced to explain that the most onerous provisions contained in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 does not on its face apply to U.S. citizens. And, indeed, this is true. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus – the ability of an imprisoned person to challenge their confinement in court—applies only to resident aliens within the United States as well as other foreign nationals captured here and abroad.
So while the new law dramatically reduces the legal rights and remedies of resident aliens, it does not restrict the rights and freedoms and liberties of U.S. citizens anymore than they already have been restricted. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Bush Administration, on at least two occasions before the new law was passed, tried to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for U.S. citizens...
(CBS)
The transcript of the event reads like the pep rally it was intended to be. And if the Attorney General actually typed out his responses I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. But one theme struck me as particularly interesting. Over and over again, Gonzales was forced to explain that the most onerous provisions contained in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 does not on its face apply to U.S. citizens. And, indeed, this is true. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus – the ability of an imprisoned person to challenge their confinement in court—applies only to resident aliens within the United States as well as other foreign nationals captured here and abroad.
So while the new law dramatically reduces the legal rights and remedies of resident aliens, it does not restrict the rights and freedoms and liberties of U.S. citizens anymore than they already have been restricted. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Bush Administration, on at least two occasions before the new law was passed, tried to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for U.S. citizens...
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
