Court Rebuffs Bush On Enemy Combatants

(CBS/AP)  The Bush administration cannot use new anti-terrorism laws to keep U.S. residents locked up indefinitely without charging them, a divided federal appeals court said Monday.

The ruling bluntly tells President Bush he has gone too far arresting civilians as enemy combatants, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.

"To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the President calls them 'enemy combatants,' would have disastrous consequences for the constitution — and the country," the court panel said.

The decision has no legal bearing on detainees at Guantanamo, adds Andrews, but it is another hurdle for an adminstration that has yet to try a single enemy combatant. And it will add to demands in Congress to grant Guantanamo prisoners access to U.S. courts.

In the 2-1 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that the federal Military Commissions Act doesn't strip Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident, of his constitutional rights to challenge his accusers in court. It ruled the government must release al-Marri from military detention.

"This ruling actually could – emphasis on could – do to the new Military Commissions Act what the Democratically controlled Congress has been thinking about doing for a few months now," says CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen, "which is to change the impact of the law to preclude it from taking away from resident aliens here in this country the right to challenge their detention or confinement in court."

Cohen added that the ruling doesn't mean the suspect will be freed.

"Like former enemy combatant Jose Padilla, al-Marri now likely is to be charged in federal court with various terror related charges and then we'll likely see a replay of the sorts of issues that only now are coming to light at Padilla's trial in Miami, mainly the difficultly in transferring a military case into a civilian one," said Cohen.

The government intends to ask the full 4th Circuit to hear the case, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said.

"The President has made clear that he intends to use all available tools at his disposal to protect Americans from further al Qaeda attack, including the capture and detention of al Qaeda agents who enter our borders," Boyd said in a statement.

Al-Marri has been held in solitary confinement in the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., since June 2003. The Qatar native has been detained since his December 2001 arrest at his home in Peoria, Ill., where he moved with his wife and five children a day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to study for a master's degree at Bradley University.

"This is a landmark victory for the rule of law and a defeat for unchecked executive power," al-Marri's lawyer, Jonathan Hafetz, said in a statement. "It affirms the basic constitutional rights of all individuals — citizens and immigrants — in the United States."

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[firststate]

lets see what you say when one of your family is in a be-heading video and the sweetheart whose picture is at the top of this page is the star with the knife in his hand.
Posted by mommajomma

Let's see what you say when one of your family is secretly taken off the streets, with no notice or even admission that they have him/her in custody for years, during which your family member is transferred to foreign countries for torture and interrogation. Would you like it when you found out the whole ordeal was ordered by the bushshit white house? That's the power you want to give to one man, without the opportunity to learn of his/her confinement or to contest it. There is no one who should be so entrusted, we have a Constitution to prevent just such actions. Even if you're willing to give a man the unchecked power of secretly locking you away at his whim, the rest of us and the Constitution disagree. There are dictatorships where you can get that kind of "security" but the U.S. isn't one of those places. You're welcome to write and let us know how safe you feel when you get there.

[firststate]

lets see what you say when one of your family is in a be-heading video and the sweetheart whose picture is at the top of this page is the star with the knife in his hand.
Posted by mommajomma

Let's see what you say when one of your family is secretly taken off the streets, with no notice or even admission that they have him/her in custody for years, during which your family member is transferred to foreign countries for torture and interrogation. Would you like it when you found out the whole ordeal was ordered by the bushshit white house? That's the power you want to give to one man, without the opportunity to learn of his/her confinement or to contest it. There is no one who should be so entrusted, we have a Constitution to prevent just such actions. Even if you're willing to give a man the unchecked power of secretly locking you away at his whim, the rest of us and the Constitution disagree. There are dictatorships where you can get that kind of "security" but the U.S. isn't one of those places. You're welcome to write and let us know how safe you feel when you get there.

[firststate]

Bush/Cheney share more similarities with Hitler than with Bush/Quayle. They've taken the country for a long ride down a very dark road. Bush 41's administration were loyal to and respectful of the Constitution. Perhaps the fact that 41 had actually fought for that document and all that it means to this nation explains their differences. None of us can know whether he lied as he spoke his oath of office, never intending to perform his Constitutional duties, but his actions speak for themselves. He has violated the heart of his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. What higher treason is there?

[mommajomma-2009]

lets see what you say when one of your family is in a be-heading video and the sweetheart whose picture is at the top of this page is the star with the knife in his hand.

[mh4cbs1]

Face it: Cheney/Bush are much closer to Hitler than to Thomas Jefferson.

[getcentered]

"The GOP practically gave the next couple of elections over to the Democrats.

The Democrats got my vote for the next elections, and for me the decision is easy.

It boils down to this: I want a smart government.

You know, one that uses the truth to create peace, or won't hide the truth to create war.

The party that believes our government should play a role in creating a healthy environment, that is free of pollution.

The party that believes we can have a health care system that will provide for all peoples in this country.

The party of SCIENCE, you won't see Democrats trying to force your children to learn "intelligent design" along side of scientifically based evolution.

I truly think Republicans are people who are not prepared to live in a world that can change so quickly, and where the truth is harder to hide.

It%u2019s time to open the door for tolerance, compassion, understanding, and debate.

Real debate!
No B.S. angry Republican rhetoric whose goals are not to educate but to instill fear, or belittle.

I believe the last few election were the last gasp for Republicans, a party that has lost all meaning and whose construct has been %u201Cgiven to god%u201D or %u201Csold to the corporations%u201D.

[abbe7]

"By the way; Bush IS connected to Hitler by way of his grandfather who was Hitler's banker.
Posted by pauldouglasc at 10:29 AM : Jun 12, 2007"

Yes, you can even say that Prescott Bush made his fortune (fortune without which there wouldn't have been a Bush 41 or 43) thanks to the poor guys dying
in Auschwitz. You won't read that in the MSM ...

[pauldouglasc]

Bush fires back: "I don't need no constipitution...I mean 'constipation'...construction? Consternation! I don't need no consternation to tell me how fight terroristical types, I know how: get rid of all those rights they hide behind. True Americans will understand."

By the way; Bush IS connected to Hitler by way of his grandfather who was Hitler's banker.

[grumpas]

"Folks are drawing correlations between Bush and Hitler and I frankly feel that this is unwarranted. I am the biggest critic of Bush and his administration but he has no correlation to Hitler and the Third Reich. ..."
Houser123

We have a duly elected President who has become increasingly fascist!!! When he was elected there wasn't a big sign on him saying fascist! I am certain a lot of American's would not have voted to him. His policies are very reminicent of the good old Hitler days. Except he hasn't started shooting liberal's and dumping them in mass graves. But, he has done about everything else including making people disappear. If you don't see the analogy between the two you need to take a better look at our illustrious leader. Because he is a whole lot like him complete with propaganda to start wars.

[mikealford3]

Let me add this: did you hear about "Operation Northwoods" ? This is not propaganda, no conspiracy theory, these are officially declassified documents showing what "could" have happened if a good president didn't stop it.
From this I would be tempted to look for similarities too.
Posted by abbe7 at 09:17 AM : Jun 12, 2007


Focus on the word "could" in that statment. This administration is governing on theory and fear tactics and the things that could happen. We need to get out of this "fear" and move on.

If a person lives his whole life affraid to come out of his shell/home, does he really live?