Judge Rejects Hamdan
Judge upholds detainee rights terror law
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – A federal judge upheld the Bush administration’s new terrorism law Wednesday, agreeing that Guantanamo Bay detainees do not have the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson is the first to address the new Military Commissions Act and is a legal victory for the Bush administration at a time when it has been fending off criticism of the law from Democrats and libertarians.
Robertson rejected a legal challenge by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden whose case prompted the Supreme Court to strike down the Bush administration’s policy on detainees last year.
Following Hamdan’s victory, Bush asked for and got a new law that established military commissions to try enemy combatants and stripped them of the right to seek their freedom in U.S. courts.
Hamdan’s case was sent back before Robertson, a nominee of President Clinton who was a prominent civil rights advocate in private practice.
Though Robertson originally sided with Hamdan, he said that he no longer had jurisdiction to hear Hamdan’s case because Congress clearly intended to keep such disputes out of federal courts. He said foreigners being held in overseas military prisons do not have the right to challenge their detention, a right people inside the country normally enjoy.
All of the Republicans, except for Lincoln Chaffee, and eleven piss-poor excuses for Democrats, voted for the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The following are the Democrats who voted to kill habeas corpus. These are the fine men and women who voted to legalize torture, and who voted to give the President dictatorial powers.
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Lieberman (D I)
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
My family lives in New Jersey: I don’t know how I could have forgotten to post it, but we sent the following letter to Senator Lautenberg, signed by all of us (except my sister, who doesn’t pay attention to politics anyway):
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Hart Senate Office Building
Suite 324
Washington, DC 20510Dear Senator Lautenberg:
For over forty years, across three states, and through thick and thin, the Skwire family has been loyal Democrats. We have worked hard to elect Democrats to the Senate, the House of Representatives, and to the White House. Our parents, Stephen and Marilyn Skwire, are members of the Atlantic County Democrats Club, and have campaigned for John Kerry, Robert Menendez, and you. In Pennsylvania, our sons Brendan and Raymond are activist Democrats, networking with local and state politicians, writers, and bloggers to support and elect Democrats. We have voted for Democrats in every single state and national election.
Mr. Lautenberg, your vote for the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was cowardly, un-American, and despicable. Unlike your colleague Senator Menendez, you are not fighting a tight election battle. You are in a secure seat. You are an old man, and independently wealthy. You have indicated that you may not run for re-election. You had nothing to lose by voting your conscience.
And yet you voted in favor of a bill you didn’t even read, a bill which permits the president to imprison people forever, on his say-so alone, without charges, without a hearing, without appeal, and without access to habeas corpus. This vote is an indelible and unforgivable stain on your reputation. It undermines, and indeed trumps, every other good thing you have ever done in your long career.
You are no longer the Senator who stood up for reproductive rights. You are no longer the Senator who stood up for domestic violence victims. You are no longer the Senator who tried to stop oil companies from gouging the public.
You are now one of the eleven Democrats who support torture. You supported giving George W. Bush dictatorial powers. You sold America out Mr. Lautenberg. For what? Our family will never forgive you.
Strike our names from your mailing list immediately. Do not ask us for any campaign assistance. And please know that, should you choose to run, we will do everything in our capacity to send you back home, and to make sure that our friends and neighbors know that the Senator from New Jersey betrayed not only the state and the people he represents, but the nation and the Constitution as well.
You are a disgrace to the Democratic Party, a disgrace to New Jersey, and a disgrace to this nation.
Good day to you.
Stephen Skwire
Marilyn Skwire
Brendan Skwire
Raymond Skwire
I didn’t even bother to write to Specter, a man as vacant of character and integrity as he is full of inflated self-importance, intoning gravely about the bill being patently unconstitutional on its face and boasting that he would oppose it, before signing it the very next day.
It is still unclear how this bill will treat Americans: the President has the sole authority to declare who is the enemy. This isn’t a good development.
February 13th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
[...] Menendez Does the Right Thing. By Brendan When Senator Bob Menendez, one of the eleven democrats to support torture and the repeal of of habeas cor…, cast his vote, many Democrats (including me) gave him the barest sliver of passes by arguing that [...]