|
Letter to the Editor from the Chicago Council of Lawyers December 13, 2005 On November 15 the U.S. Senate approved an amendment to a military funding bill that would deny Guantanamo detainees access to federal courts except by appealing from a finding by a military tribunal that they are enemy combatants, or by appealing from a conviction by a military tribunal of a war crime or other crime. (In the latter case they are guaranteed the right to appeal only if they been sentenced to jail for at least 10 years.) The Chicago Council of Lawyers urges the Senate to reconsider the amendment for the following reasons. In June 2004 the Supreme Court held that the Guantanamo prisoners could challenge their detention by filling habeas corpus petitions in federal court. The amendment attempts to overturn that decision. It is also an end run around a recent Supreme Court decision to review the legality of the procedures of the Guantanamo military tribunals. The proposal bars all access to court until a military tribunal determines if a detainee is indeed an enemy combatant. The government can choose never to seek such a determination. Moreover the scope of judicial review of a tribunal decision is limited because the detainees are barred from challenging the accuracy of a determination of their status as an enemy combatant or their conviction of a crime. The Guantanamo tribunals have fundamental flaws. For instance, Defendants can be excluded from their own hearings, even when testimony or other evidence is presented against them. Also, although the members of the tribunals are probably well intended, can they really be neutral as to prisoners who have been held for four years and publicly called vicious killers by the Bush Administration? Our Constitution provides for the writ of habeas corpus. It was developed to prevent the prolonged detention of individuals without charge, and to allow persons to assert rights to due process of law. The amendment unconstitutionally and unwisely attempts to limit those fundamental rights. Gordon G.
Waldron Carrie K.
Huff |