Posted on 10/21/2005 8:37:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Thursday spoke out for clearer and more high-minded rules governing the detention and interrogation of prisoners in the war on terrorism.
Addressing cadets at West Point, O'Connor said incidents from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have shown confusion among soldiers and the need for guidance.
While the Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners should have a meaningful opportunity to challenge indefinite detention, O'Connor said the court should not and cannot give broad answers to policy questions.
The president and Congress have done little to date to clarify the situation, she said.
However, she cited fundamental national values that the rules should reflect, citing "belief in protecting the basic humanity of all people, including our adversaries. We will not stoop to the atrocities of some of our adversaries."
O'Connor, 75, became the first woman on the court when she was appointed by President Reagan in 1981. She announced her retirement this year but is serving until her successor is confirmed. White House counsel Harriet Miers has been nominated.
O'Connor addressed 4,000 cadets Thursday night after receiving the Thayer Award, named for Col. Sylvanus Thayer, known as the father of the military academy.
The award is presented by West Point's Association of Graduates to an outstanding citizen whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify the academy's motto of "Duty, Honor, Country."
Supertintendent of the U.S. Military Academy Lt. Gen. William Lennox, Jr., left, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and Cadet First Capt. Stephanie Hightower, left front, in the jeep, from Rio Rancho, N.M., are driven by Sgt. Shannon Booker to review the corp of cadets before O'Connor received the Sylvanus Thayer Award on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005, at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (AP Photo/ Jim McKnight)
McCain is probably praying that Miers is not confirmed and O'Connor stays on the court...
I pray that MCCain just goes away....LOL
Weren't you just leaving?
I can't wait until this confused woman leaves the Court.
So, why hasn't Sandra applied this philosophy to other cases? Roe vs. Wade, for instance?
Bet the b!tch out of there.
Uh, Bet = Get.
The arrogance of this lady making a speech like this while she's a justice. If she wants to set policy, she should run for president. Otherwise, it is highly inappropriate for her to be speaking out like this.
And, if Miers is not confirmed, this is who will be ruling on Hamdi ...... I just can't beleive that people don't understand that.
Let's hope the cadets were smart enough to ignore everything the old bat had to say. She's a disgrace, and to think she's making decisions that govern the entire country...makes me sick!
Seeing the motto of the
Academy and then her in the same article brought to mind
"Duty, Honor, some other Country's laws"
being the governing theme.
There's obviously a Lib in the woodpile at Woo Poo to have even invited her, let alone awarded her the Thayer Award. Shey should have awarded her a dunce cap.
she just made it appropriate for her to recuse herself from any deliberation on the maggots at gitmo.
And, if Miers is not confirmed, this is who will be ruling on Hamdi ......
And partial birth abortion. BLEH!
I was thinking the same thing
The only up side is that she's retiring
Wasn't Sandy a Reagan nominee?
I simply can't understand how any President can predict what any SCJ will think during their lifetime tenure. President Reagan must be rolling in his grave.
Glad to see you see it too!
"..spoke out for clearer and more high-minded rules governing the detention and interrogation of prisoners in the war on terrorism."
If we fought WW2 the way these left-wing liberal judges think today, I would be writing this in German or Japanese.
These "prisoners" are not soldiers. They do not represent any existing government.
They are not revolutionaries. They are killers and terrorists and more akin to pirates than even to contemporary criminals in the U.S.
There are military hospitals full of hundreds or even thousands of American soldiers wounded grievously by "road-side bombs' and other unconventional actions by these lunatics.
There are graveyards full of dead Iraqi civlians, thousands of other wounded Iraqis and people whose lives have been destroyed forever by the actions of these fiends.
We have 2,000 dead American soldiers over there and all the dead of the twin towers.
Yet these people still are carrying on total waar against civilians in violation of all modern military conventions, threatening the world with nuclear and germ warfare.
I would gladly break each and very bone in their bodies or nail them to crosses to rot in the sun if that would get information which would save the lives of American fighting personnel, and protect civlians - over in Iraq and even more so - over here.
Justice O'Connor, I am thoroughly happy you are leaving. I wish some of your companions on the Court were leaving with you.
On the way out, take a tour of Walter Reid Army Hospital in Washington - then maybe you'll finally understand what torture really is.
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.