Posted on 06/28/2004 8:21:16 AM PDT by Thud
This is the thread for a legal oriented discussion of Rasul v. Bush, which may be the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case. The link is to an Adobe Acrobat reader version of the ruling's text. I'm a lawyer and will analyze this opinion, and its implications, later today after studying it more carefully.
For instance:
Petitioners here differ from the Eisentrager detainees in important respects: They are not nationals of countries at war with the United States, and they deny that they have engaged in or plotted acts of aggression against this country; they have never been afforded access to any tribunal, much less charged with and convicted of wrongdoing; and for more than two years they have been imprisoned in territory over which the United States exercises exclusive jurisdiction and control. [bold mine]Now, as Scalia points out, Gitmo has been considered outside US federal court jurisdiction in previous SCOTUS rulings. So we don't know if SCOTUS might extend this ruling to all American bases in the future, whether in Afghanistan or Katmandu.By the express terms of its agreements with Cuba, the United States exercises complete jurisdiction and control over the Guantanamo Base, and may continue to do so permanently if it chooses.
Now THAT'S interesting. Don't know if it'd help me get weed any. Pls ping me if you do have comments. I always like to know your thoughts on SCOTUS matters.
The discussion should be interesting.
As I understand it, the US gov't argued that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over the non-citizens held in Guantanomo Bay, pointing to Johnson v. Eisentrager, where a German national was denied a review of habeus corpus to 21 German citizens arrested in China during WWII. The Supreme Court in Eisentrager denied because they found the facts they would have to ignore were too great.
support that as-sumption we must hold that a prisoner of our military authorities is constitutionally entitled to the writ, even though he (a) is an enemy alien; (b) has never been or resided in the United States; (c) was captured outside of our territory and there held in military cus-tody as a prisoner of war; (d) was tried and convicted by a Military Commission sitting outside the United States; (e) for offenses against laws of war committed outside the United States; (f) and is at all times im-prisoned outside the United States. 339 U. S., at 777.
The Supreme court here decided that Eisentrager didn't apply here because the Eisentrager conditions weren't met. They are not nationals of a country at war with the US, and they "deny they have engaged in or plotted acts of aggression against the United States." (This stumps me -- does SCOTUS really take at face value a denial that they planned to fight the US?). Souter also argues that Gitmo is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States (undeniably true), and that the detainers at Gitmo are under their jurisdiction. If the jailers are undeniably under US Court jurisdiction, how can the detainees not be?
That's my read on this, but that and fifty cents wont get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Note that this is the first time the federal judiciary has EVER asserted jurisdiction over enemy prisoners of war. We held scores of thousands of German POW's in the U.S. during World War Two, and Confederate POW's during the Civil War who were U.S. citizens, and they did not have access to the federal courts.
This decision is plain nuts.
But, perhaps this is a case of where a little legal knowledge is a dangerous thing. Give me a chance to get a legal background, and I'd be less tentative.
The majority opinion presents a surprising but characteristic (of bad decisions) type of analysis - result first and reasoning afterwards. Given the briefing, the majority opinion reads like an advocate's brief itself, not a judicial opinion.
This tells me that a six-judge majority of the United States Supreme Court is directly challenging the Executive Branch's war powers.
In a war where the homeland has been attacked with biological weapons.
And there will be more majority opinions like Rasul v. Bush.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.