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To: Non-Sequitur
Yet other legal scholars, like the current Chief Justice, say that it has never been established that the President cannot suspend habeas corpus

Would that be the same Chief Justice Rehnquist who signed onto a ruling this summer that said this?

"We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation’s citizens. Whatever power the United States Constitution envisions for the Executive in its exchanges with other nations or with enemy organizations in times of conflict, it most assuredly envisions a role for all three branches when individual liberties are at stake. Likewise, we have made clear that, unless Congress acts to suspend it, the Great Writ of habeas corpus allows the Judicial Branch to play a necessary role in maintaining this delicate balance of governance, serving as an important judicial check on the Executive’s discretion in the realm of detentions. Thus, while we do not question that our due process assessment must pay keen attention to the particular burdens faced by the Executive in the context of military action, it would turn our system of checks and balances on its head to suggest that a citizen could not make his way to court with a challenge to the factual basis for his detention by his government, simply because the Executive opposes making available such a challenge. Absent suspension of the writ by Congress, a citizen detained as an enemy combatant is entitled to this process."

You are correct about Rehnquist having a view on the matter, only his real view is absolutely nothing like the one you assign to him.

2,070 posted on 12/02/2004 9:28:19 AM PST by GOPcapitalist ("Marxism finds it easy to ally with Islamic zealotism" - Ludwig von Mises)
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To: GOPcapitalist
Would that be the same Chief Justice Rehnquist who signed onto a ruling this summer that said this?

The most recent obiter dictum on the subject aside, it also the same Chief Justice correctly pointed out in a May 2000 speech, "Lincoln, with his usual incisiveness, put his finger on the debate that inevitably surrounds issues of civil liberties in wartime. If the country itself is in mortal danger, must we enforce every provision safeguarding individual liberties even though to do so will endanger the very government which is created by the Constitution? The question of whether only Congress may suspend it has never been authoritatively answered to this day, but the Lincoln administration proceeded to arrest and detain persons suspected of disloyal activities, including the mayor of Baltimore and the chief of police."

Your considered legal opinion to the contrary notwithstanding.

2,075 posted on 12/02/2004 9:38:19 AM PST by Non-Sequitur (Jefferson Davis - the first 'selected, not elected' president.)
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