Posted on 06/29/2006 7:35:30 AM PDT by Uncledave
Supreme Court Blocks Bush, Gitmo War Trials Jun 29 10:21 AM US/Eastern Email this story
By GINA HOLLAND Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti- terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.
The case focused on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden. Hamdan, 36, has spent four years in the U.S. prison in Cuba. He faces a single count of conspiring against U.S. citizens from 1996 to November 2001.
Two years ago, the court rejected Bush's claim to have the authority to seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny them access to courts or lawyers. In this followup case, the justices focused solely on the issue of trials for some of the men.
The vote was split 5-3, with moderate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy joining the court's liberal members in ruling against the Bush administration. Chief Justice John Roberts, named to the lead the court last September by Bush, was sidelined in the case because as an appeals court judge he had backed the government over Hamdan.
Thursday's ruling overturned that decision.
What section of the Geneva treaty apply to combatants who are not identified as fighting with any particular country? or not wearing the uniform of any particular country?
The other point it makes is that the CONGRESS needs to set this up and decide...
Lindsay Graham said on FOX that he would introduce legislation asap ..
The ruling seems to suggest they can be held til the end of the WOT..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060629.wguant0629/BNStory/International/homen
"Thursday's vote by the court was split 5-3, with moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy joining the court's liberal members in ruling against the Bush administration.
Chief Justice John Roberts, named to the lead the court last September by Bush, was sidelined in the case because as an appeals court judge he had backed the government over Mr. Hamdan.
Thursday's ruling overturned that decision.
Surprise, surprise. Kennedy (hardly a moderate) joins libs in "making law" based on International Jurisprudence."
Enough already. Come on Congress, get off the dime, here.
The president's duty is to protect this nation, not to ignore silly conventions burocrats right. I hope he ignores this and continues torturing those lowlives and giving them what they deserve.
What Judges voted which way??
HELP!! How did the individual justices vote? Anyone????
Whether or not I'm an idiot is irrelevant.
The fact remains that if this administration had followed long-standing custom regarding captured prisoners, the US Supreme Court would not have just intervened.
Well, actually, that's a big part of the problem. We have a good system of laws in place to deal with wartime opponents. Unfortunately, Congress never declared war in this situation, so wartime rules don't apply.
Suggest that upon release.......all terrorists get maps and directions to the Supreme Court buildings and homes of the idiots who made this ruling.......so they can "thank"them personally.
Unfortunately, they don't speak to interrogators, either.
did you read the rest of my post? custom and law are 2 different things. these barbarians are not afforded geneva convention rights. period. and 5 libs who use world law to make rulings for the united states does not change that. are you a conservative?
Exactly right! Send them back to the countries where they were captured and let them deal with them.
Since when does the Geneva convention apply to terrorists
Try reading the Geneva convention. It is a duly ratified treaty of the US and therefore we are Constitutionally bound to abide by it.
Is Al-Queada a signator of the Geneva Convention?
Does the saintly Geneva Convention cover beheadings?
Is AQ an army? What is their uniform? What country do they belong to? The GC only covers countries, not terrorist groups.
The deciscion was 5-3
Stevens, Breyer, Ginsberg, Souter & Kennedy VS Alito, Scalia and Thomas (Roberts sat out because he had ruled on the case previously)
Once prisoners are in our custody, they most certainly ARE afforded Geneva protections. That's because if we are unsure of their status, they are to be treated as captured lawful combatants. That's the law.
Since we have warehoused them for about five years, never declared them to be EPWs or held any proceedings to declare them as such, and from the outset were captured in an undeclared war, it is safe to say that we are unsure of their status. There is a lot of legal ambiguity that the ACLU, the World Court, and other liberal lawyers have wet dreams about filing law suits over.
Not question who they were, or why they were here.
As best I can judge Gitmo is a lot more like the Cook County Jail: you have a few Sociopaths, you have some high and middle level hardcore gang members, you have a lot of lower echelon operatives, some people who are either players on the periphery of the gang or just wanna' bes, some mental ill indviduals, and even some ordinary if unsavory loking citizens who were caught up in a police sweep.
That's only true of a small number, and at this point even they are of little use, since they've been out of the loop for over 4 years and any information they might have is now stale.
The vast majority are rank-and-file terrorists are of little to no value to us alive. The only reason they're still alive is because the various administration lawyers couldn't agree on how to try them. There was an excellent piece about this in the Atlantic a couple issues back.
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