Posted on 11/14/2005 6:09:49 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise Monday that would allow detainees at Guantanamo Bay to appeal the rulings of military tribunals to the federal courts.
Under the agreement, detainees who receive a punishment of 10 years in prison to death would receive an automatic appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Lesser sentences would not receive automatic review, but detainees still could petition the court to hear their case.
In addition, the 500 or so detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba would be allowed to challenge in federal court the procedure under which they were labeled an "enemy combatant."
The compromise proposal allows the federal court reviews in place of the one tool the Supreme Court gave detainees in 2004 to fight the legality of their detention — the right to file habeas corpus petitions in federal courts.
"Instead of unlimited lawsuits, the courts now will be looking at whether you're properly determined to be an enemy combatant and, if you're tried, whether or not your conviction followed the military commission procedures in place," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an interview.
The Senate will vote on the compromise provision Tuesday. Approval would mean the Senate endorses the Bush administration's military tribunals for prosecuting suspected foreign terrorists at Guantanamo. The Supreme Court agreed last week to review a constitutional challenge to those tribunals.
Graham sponsored the original provision the Senate added Thursday to a defense bill on a 49-42 vote. It simply barred suspects from filing habeas corpus petitions used to fight unlawful detentions, a vote that came in spite of last year's Supreme Court decision granting detainees such rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Why don't they just proclaim it to be September 10th 2001 day. That sure as hell how they are governing.
KEEP IT UP US SENATE!!!!
THOUSANDS OF TERRORISTS ARE DEPENDING ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well .. if they don't .. that's great news!
What gives Senators the power to do this?
Not true. There's only 3 Clinton judges on that court. Reagan, Bush-I, and Bush-II each have 2 judges on the court, plus there's 2 vacancies. Also, of the 4 senior judges, 3 are Reaganites and the other is from either Johnson or Carter. Reagan's failed Supreme Court nominee, Douglas Ginsburg, is Chief Judge. It's a good court.
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - the case goes directly from military tribunal to Court of Appeals, with no stop at the District Court Level.
SA 2524. Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. LEVIN, and Mr. KYL) proposed an amendment to amendment SA 2515 proposed by Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. KYL, Mr. CHAMBLISS, and Mr. CORNYN) to the bill S. 1042, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2006 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe personnel strengths for such fiscal year for the Armed Forces, and for other purposes; as follows: ...SEC. __. REVIEW OF STATUS OF DETAINEES.
(a) Submittal of Procedures for Status Review of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees, and to the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives, a report setting forth the procedures of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and the noticed Administrative Review Boards in operation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for determining the status of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
(b) Procedures.--The procedures submitted to Congress pursuant to subsection (a) shall, with respect to proceedings beginning after the date of the submittal of such procedures under that subsection, ensure that--
(1) in making a determination of status of any detainee under such procedures, a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or Administrative Review Board may not consider statements derived from persons that, as determined by such Tribunal or Board, by the preponderance of the evidence, were obtained with undue coercion; and
(2) the Designated Civilian Official shall be an officer of the United States Government whose appointment to office was made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. ...
(d) Judicial Review of Detention of Enemy Combatants.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(e) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien outside the United States (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(38) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(38)) who is detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.''.
(2) REVIEW OF DECISIONS OF COMBATANT STATUS REVIEW TRIBUNALS OF PROPRIETY OF DETENTION.--
(A) IN GENERAL.--Subject to subparagraphs (B), (C), and (D), the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of any decision of a Designated Civilian Official described in subsection (b)(2) that an alien is properly detained as an enemy combatant.
[lots more - worth reading]
Mash Here -> 109th Congress - Senate - November 14, 2005
Navigate to: 29 . TEXT OF AMENDMENTS
Court tackles new Gitmo detainee law
By PAMELA HESS AND SHAUN WATERMAN
UPI Security and TerrorismWASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., is soliciting opinions on whether a new law denying the Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention in federal court applies retroactively to all those in custody.
If the court decides the law does apply across the board, many lawsuits filed by detainees against the Bush administration using the centuries-old common law principle of habeas corpus would come to an end. ...
The new law, dubbed the Detainee Treatment Act, was made part of the 2006 defense authorization act. It was also sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Az. It prohibits prisoners held at the jail on the U.S. enclave in Cuba from filing habeas corpus cases.
According to Graham's office, some 160 cases involving 300 Guantanamo prisoners had already been filed with the D.C. circuit when the act became law.
The administration is arguing that the law applies retroactively as well, and said last week it wants all federal courts to dismiss all the Guantanamo cases before them.
Congress, however, is less clear on the matter.
Graham, a former military lawyer, sides with the White House but left room for the courts to arrive at their own decision.
"Under no circumstance did I intend... that existing lawsuits filed by enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be statutorily preserved. Nor do I believe a reasonable reading of the statute would lead to that conclusion. The intent of the language ... is that courts will decide in accord with their own rules, procedures and precedents whether to proceed in pending cases," he stated last week.
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060110-051639-8337r
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