The Daily Background
| Unconstituional detainee bill passes Senate
by Arlen Parsa
By the way, the President’s unconstitutional detainee bill passed the Senate tonight, as expected. The vote was unfortunately 65-34, with 12 Dems defecting. I thought it was gonna be closer, with the Leahy-Specter habeas corpus amendment failing by only three votes.
This bill probably won’t become law this year though (because the House version is significantly different and it will take time to reconcile the two). I confused this with the wiretapping bill in my head. This one might go to the President’s desk before the weekend, because the House bill was almost the same. Sorry about that.
Legal challenges will no doubt happen as well, but I’m quite disappointed that 12 dems defected on this. Maybe two or three, I could understand– but this many? I was also a bit surprised that some of the more moderate Republicans didn’t jump ship (one did– was it Chafee? I haven’t got a roll call yet) on this one, but honestly it should have been a lot closer either way.
Background on the bill and why it’s unconstitutional can be found here.
Update: Yeah, it was Chafee, I was right. Roll call here.
John Warner was quoted as saying: Enemy combatants are “unlawful by all international standards in the manner in which they conduct war, and yet this great nation … is going to mete out a measure of justice.”
A measure of justice? Why just a measure? Is “liberty and justice for all†mere hyberbole? Is justice to be meted out conditionally, depending on the perceived merits of the accused? Depending on the accused’s presumed political allegiances … religious allegiance … nationality … race? Is our “lawfulness†contingent on the “lawfulness†of our enemies? Of whomever we say is our enemy?
Such rhetoric — and such legislation — leads us down a dangerous road, a road that leads us not toward, but away, from liberty and justice.