SCOTUSblog reports on the Supreme Court's December case load:
The Supreme Court will hear the two consolidated cases testing the legal rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 10 a.m. — the only case scheduled for that day.
...
Wednesday, Dec. 5* Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al Odah v. U.S. (06-1196) — whether Guantanamo Bay detainees have a constitutional or common law right to challenge their detention through habeas claims in U.S. federal courts (consolidated, one hour hearing).
In June Senator Dodd said this on giving habeas rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees:
[W]e cannot wait for the next President to restore our moral authority - we have to restore our standing in the world by having the conviction to stand up to this President now. This begins with closing the prisons at Guantanamo Bay and restoring Habeas Corpus rights to those in our custody.
We'll be looking forward to the Supreme Court hearing these cases. Stay tuned for further updates.
Comments
It's my sense that one of the primary motivations of conservatives has been to establish a new criterion on the basis of which they can discriminate between individuals. The principle of equality really sticks in their craw and the failure to deprive the children born to recent immigrants of public education and other social services still rankles. So, if they can't exclude the children who are Americans because they were born here, they want to make a clear line distinction between citizen and non-citizen. The Constitution, as far as I'm aware, makes no such distinction but refers to "persons" who are, presumably, all equal.
I don't think our agents of government should behave differently depending on the nationality or personal characteristics of the persons they interact with.
I guess there is no need to diffrentiate between someone born to American parents, and someone who has been born to immigrants -- once he/she acquires an American citizenship.
Sean
www.ezcampaigns.com