Habeas Corpus
A frequent blog reader hit me with a message the other day about the Military Commissions Act (MCA). Having only taken a cursory look at the matter I had simply filed it away as something that’s probably not such a good thing but it didn’t get my knickers in a twist.
Depending on who you listen to the MCA is either the greatest terrorism fighting tool since smokeless powder, or, an abomination that will remove the right of habeas corpus from anybody the US accuses of terrorism. Sure sounds like something I’d have a strong opinion on, but I didn’t at the time.
Apathy? Sort of. I’ll explain.
The argument against the MCA is that the US government can simply declare somebody an enemy combatant under it and then put them through a military tribunal instead of the criminal courts of the US that provide protection of their civil liberties — the biggest difference being the ability to see all the evidence against you I gather.
That’s where the apathy sets in — we’ve already done that. That’s the reason the MCA went to Congress. The Executive branch needed the Legislative branch to sign off on it. The Judicial branch spelled it out recently in the Hamden case. That’s why the MCA went to Congress. Hence, I’m not too worried about Congress rubber stamping something that the Executive branch has already engaged in. However, I wasn’t happy about it, and that was taking a very pessimistic view of of the legislation that I hadn’t even read yet.
Today I found that Kim du Toit took a look at the MCA and, correctly I believe, demonstrates that the MCA only applies to non-US citizens. This seems acceptable to me. If that sounds counter to my general thinking on matters of civil liberties I’d encourage you to read Kim’s analysis. If his analysis is correct there are plenty of checks and balances with this system.
Further it seems as though Congress, properly, reigned in the Executive branch in this matter by restricting the MCA to non-US citizens. If so, then this shows that our system of government is actually working to protect the civil rights of US citizens.
So, I don’t really see this as a huge blow to freedom in America. Could it be bad? I suppose. However, I think I’ll wait to see these powers abused before before I jump on that bandwagon.