Tightwad
11-02-2006, 06:30 AM
Found on bikeforums.net today.......(post by: erraticrider)
Retired Federal Judges Join Detainees in Effort to Overturn Tribunal Law
Thursday, November 02, 2006
WASHINGTON — Seven retired federal judges from both political parties have joined dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees in urging an appeals court to declare key parts of President Bush's new anti-terrorism law unconstitutional.
The judges, in a rare court filing Wednesday, said stripping courts of the right to question how the military handles terrorism suspects "challenges the integrity of our judicial system" and effectively sanctions the use of torture.
Bush signed a law this month allowing the military to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without allowing them to use the U.S. courts to contest their detention. Bush hailed the law, which established a system of military trials, as a crucial tool in the war on terrorism and said it would allow prosecution of several high-level terror suspects.
For detainees challenging their imprisonment, the law locks them out of the civilian court system. Dozens of detainees argued Wednesday that the law is unconstitutional, and the retired judges echoed that in their own papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
"We believe that compelling this court to sanction executive detentions based on evidence that has been condemned in the American legal system since our nation's founding erodes the vital role of the judiciary in safeguarding the rule of law," the judges wrote.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227014,00.html
Retired Federal Judges Join Detainees in Effort to Overturn Tribunal Law
Thursday, November 02, 2006
WASHINGTON — Seven retired federal judges from both political parties have joined dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees in urging an appeals court to declare key parts of President Bush's new anti-terrorism law unconstitutional.
The judges, in a rare court filing Wednesday, said stripping courts of the right to question how the military handles terrorism suspects "challenges the integrity of our judicial system" and effectively sanctions the use of torture.
Bush signed a law this month allowing the military to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without allowing them to use the U.S. courts to contest their detention. Bush hailed the law, which established a system of military trials, as a crucial tool in the war on terrorism and said it would allow prosecution of several high-level terror suspects.
For detainees challenging their imprisonment, the law locks them out of the civilian court system. Dozens of detainees argued Wednesday that the law is unconstitutional, and the retired judges echoed that in their own papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
"We believe that compelling this court to sanction executive detentions based on evidence that has been condemned in the American legal system since our nation's founding erodes the vital role of the judiciary in safeguarding the rule of law," the judges wrote.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227014,00.html