[Infowarrior] - Senate Blocks Detainees ¹ Rights Bill (Habeus Corpus Restoration Act)

[Richard Forno]

Senate Blocks Detainees¹ Rights Bill
By CARL HULSE
Published: September 20, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/washington/20detain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slog
in

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 ‹ Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort to
give terrorism detainees the right to appeal their detention to federal
courts, rejecting complaints that a new law denying that option ran against
the nation¹s principles.

Senators voted 56 to 43 to cut off debate on the proposal, 4 votes short of
the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. The result put an end for now to the
legislative effort to reverse a provision in a 2006 antiterror law; the
matter is also before the Supreme Court.

The proposal, part of a broad Pentagon policy bill, was backed by Senators
Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the
committee. The two senators argued that the decision to strip the right of
habeas corpus from detainees, including those at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was a
major mistake that merited quick correction.

Mr. Leahy dismissed the suggestion that giving detainees access to the
federal courts amounted to what critics called a terrorist bill of rights
that would put the nation at risk.

³The truth is, casting aside the time-honored protection of habeas corpus
makes us more vulnerable as a nation because it leads us away from our core
American values and calls into question our historic role as a defender of
human rights around the world,² Mr. Leahy said.

Opponents of the provision said that it went far beyond the rights
traditionally granted to hostile combatants and that it could lead to the
disclosure of classified information in trials. They also said it was an
impractical attempt to extend the courtroom to the battlefield.

³This is purely a matter of Congressional policy and national policy on how
we want to conduct warfare now and in the future,² said Senator Jeff
Sessions, Republican of Alabama. ³Are we going to do it in a way that allows
those we capture to sue us?²

Others said Congress should await the Supreme Court review of the rights of
detainees to assess whether the court agrees with the new law or overturns
it.

³The court will say that the right exists, and nothing we do is going to
affect that,² said Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona. ³But if the court
confirms that we are right, then it would be not only unnecessary but wrong
for us to change the law.²

Six Republicans sided with 50 Democrats in trying to force a final vote on
the provision, which had widespread backing among advocates for human
rights. Forty-two Republicans and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent
of Connecticut, opposed cutting off debate.

But Mr. Specter said momentum appeared to be growing for restoring the right
of habeas corpus, noting that the proposal attracted more support than it
did in a previous attempt. He said he expected that he and other proponents
would continue to pursue the goal legislatively even as the issue was
considered by the courts.

³I don¹t think this is the end of the line,² Mr. Specter said of the Senate
vote.