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Marjorie Cohn writes for Truthout: "To bolster his argument that the Guantanamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: 'At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantanamo have returned to the battlefield.' It turns out that statement is false."

http://www.truthout.org/article/scalia-cites-false-information-habeas-corpus-dissent

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What Boumediene means

CounterPunch
by Joanne Mariner

06/25/08

The Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene v. Bush was a nail in Guantanamo’s coffin. For the third time in four years, the Supreme Court sent a strong message that it disagrees with the Bush Administration’s detainee policies.The Court’s 70-page opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, holds that prisoners in US custody at Guantanamo have the right to challenge their detention via a fair process in federal court. Specifically, the decision says that the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which stripped the detainees of their right of access to the courts, represents an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The ruling overturned a lower court decision that found that the 2006 law was constitutional. Like the Court’s previous Guantanamo decisions, the ruling is a victory for individual rights. But viewed as a whole, along with the laws and executive orders that they address, the decisions also provide an interesting case study in the checks and balances, highlighting the complex power relationships among, and decision-making processes of, the three branches of government...

http://counterpunch.org/mariner06252008.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Boumediene
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