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Guitar Shark
06-29-2006, 10:53 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/29/scotus.tribunals/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday strongly limited the power of the Bush administration to conduct military tribunals for suspected terrorists imprisoned overseas at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The 5-3 ruling means officials will have to come up with a new policy to prosecute at least 10 so-called "enemy combatants" awaiting trial -- it does not dispute the government's right to detain suspects.

At the center of the dispute was a Yemeni man, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's driver and bodyguard.

Hamdan's lawyers argued that Bush exceeded his authority by setting up military commissions to try terrorist suspects, whom the administration terms "enemy combatants," rather than prisoners of war.

The administration's position was that the term means detainees do not have the rights traditionally afforded prisoners of war, as outlined in the Geneva Conventions.

The enemy combatant designation, according to the Bush administration, means the suspect can be held without charges in a military prison without the protections of the U.S. criminal justice system, such as the right to counsel -- a status the court rejected.

The detention center opened in 2002, after the war in Afghanistan, and is still holding indefinitely about 460 men suspected of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The case was a major test of President Bush's authority as commander in chief in during war. Bush has aggressively asserted the power of the government to capture, detain, and prosecute suspected terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

"The military commission at issue is not expressly authorized by any congressional act," said Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority. The tribunals, he said, "must be understood to incorporate at least the barest of those trial protections that have been recognized by customary international law."

"In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive (Bush) is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction," Stevens said.

Three issues were before the high court: whether the planned tribunals are a proper exercise of presidential authority; whether detainees facing prosecution have the right to challenge the procedures of those tribunals and their detentions; and whether the Supreme Court even has the jurisdiction to hear such appeals.

The administration had argued the president has long enjoyed wide discretion in his role as commander in chief.

"This is the president invoking an authority that he's exercised in virtually every war that we've had," Solicitor General Paul Clement told the justices. He argued that the Guantanamo detainees are enemy combatants, who are not afforded the rights of prisoners of war in the traditional sense, since terrorists do not fight on behalf of a country or recognized army.

Late last year, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Detainee Treatment Act, which ostensibly limited court intervention over the prisoner issue.

Hamdan's attorney, Neal Katyal, told the justices, "If you adopt the government's reading here, they have said they want to try 75 military commission cases or so in the first wave, you will then be left with 75 trials that take place without even the most basic question of what the parameters are that these commissions are operating under."

Katyal said the government's charge of conspiracy against Hamdan is not allowed under international standards of law for prisoners of war, and that earlier federal courts had rejected that standard as well, since it was too broadly defined.

President Bush on Wednesday said he was considering shutting the overseas prison at Guantanamo, and was to decide after the court made its decision. "I'd like to end Gitmo, like it to be over with," he said at a European Union summit in Vienna.

"One of the things we will do is that we will send people back to their homes countries. We have about 400 people left 200 have been sent back. There are some who need to be tried in U.S. courts. They are cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they are let out on the street. And yet we believe there ought to be a way forward in the court of law."

Many world leaders have pressured Bush to close the camp.

Chief Justice John Roberts did not participate in the Hamdan case. He had ruled against the government last year when the case was argued in a lower federal appeals court.

LoungeMachine
06-29-2006, 11:08 AM
Damn activist judges, legislating from the bench.


This just in......


BushCO has issued a statement declaring that in a time of war The Supreme Court has no jursidiction over the Office of The President.

so there.

FORD
06-29-2006, 11:45 AM
And now, more than ever, we should pray for the continued good health of Justice Stevens, who wrote the above opinion, and is now undoubtedly at the top of the BCE hit list. And Pat Robertson's.

bobgnote
06-29-2006, 03:18 PM
Those are the three who are not really trying to get along, who are illegally interested, in a progression of fraud and false controversy.

The USA can FAIL, for geeks who undermine procedures, GENERALLY.

That is what Clarence, Sammy, and Antonin are. DANGEROUS geeks.

Alito is in contempt of court and Congress, re Vanguard Mutual and his promise to recuse, but his REFUSAL was various contempt. Any filing can take him out, 42 U.S.C. 1983, come on!

Scalia is a traitor, period. He is a CATHOLIC-fascist conservative, NOT a founding father, American-US conswervative, and may be expelled from the court, for persistent nuisance, once any bogus court finally notices the actually illegal 2000-1 power deals are even a bit fat.

Thomas is a ****** with African-American in him, I thought until recently it might be similar to my buddy from CAL who could jump. My homeboy was one of those Thomas dudes with a 'C' all up, big family down south, like Will Smith's thing in Bel Air, I bet. I never snooped to see if it was THEM, the total TREASON-Reagan-Super******s.

Clarence been doing the meth till he's all cross-fuckeyed.

Nickdfresh
06-29-2006, 08:07 PM
Bump! This is grate!!

The dupe: http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=962220#post962220

Guitar Shark
06-29-2006, 11:01 PM
What I would like to know is how the BCE allowed this to happen. I thought the BCE owned the Supreme Court.

FORD
06-29-2006, 11:33 PM
Originally posted by Guitar Shark
What I would like to know is how the BCE allowed this to happen. I thought the BCE owned the Supreme Court.

Like I said, some of the "old school" BCE appointees don't care for Chimpy's agenda, but that's hardly surprising considering that other factions of Poppy's BCE, like Brent Scrowcroft and about half the CIA have openly criticized the Chimpministration.

Scalia & Thomas will always kiss monkey boy's ass, and Alito wasn't called a Scalia clone for nothing. So there's your built in 3 votes for Chimp no matter what. Roberts would have been a likely 4th vote, but he had to recuse himself.

Kennedy regrets his part in the Florida coup and has voted against the BCE in several decisions since. And of course Souter was never the hardline right winger that Poppy hoped he would be. Thank God.

Nickdfresh
06-30-2006, 05:34 AM
So I guess their not all alike, eh Ford?;)

FORD
06-30-2006, 12:12 PM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
So I guess their not all alike, eh Ford?;)

When did I say they were?

Guitar Shark
06-30-2006, 12:31 PM
I love how FORD talks about the justices' psychology as if he knows them :D

FORD
06-30-2006, 12:57 PM
Originally posted by Guitar Shark
I love how FORD talks about the justices' psychology as if he knows them :D

What psychology? I'm talking about their votes.

Guitar Shark
06-30-2006, 01:00 PM
I was referring to your comment that "Kennedy regrets his part in the Florida coup." I'm sure he told you that, right? ;)

FORD
06-30-2006, 01:04 PM
Originally posted by Guitar Shark
I was referring to your comment that "Kennedy regrets his part in the Florida coup." I'm sure he told you that, right? ;)

Yes he did. By consistently voting against this fascist agenda, after the coup.

Guitar Shark
06-30-2006, 01:17 PM
You are truly fascinating FORD. :D

Warham
06-30-2006, 03:10 PM
He's full of shit.

I don't know if I'd call it fascinating.

He'll shoehorn anything into place that's out of place in his BCE reality.

bobgnote
06-30-2006, 03:24 PM
See Cuba GOODING?

His career is a nudge, every scene, at the USA for hanging around GITMO like a black fag on a woodpile where chickens might get took.

CUBA refuses all attempts by the US to pay. Castro pissed off his mom when he land-reformed the Castro family ranch with everybody else's, so THE UGLY USA IS STILL HANGING AROUND LIKE A FAG INTO STEALING, get back home, you baby-bunting punks.

The heavy hitters are gonna BOOOOM you, home in a box, one year.

What you boys all standing around for? Waiting to grow your legs back? Anybody got hoops after all that freaky ATR?

Guitar Shark
06-30-2006, 03:32 PM
Originally posted by Warham
I don't know if I'd call it fascinating.

He'll shoehorn anything into place that's out of place in his BCE reality.

That's the part that i find fascinating. ;)

Warham
06-30-2006, 03:33 PM
Originally posted by Guitar Shark
That's the part that i find fascinating. ;)

Yeah, I guess I'll give him credit for being a good fiction writer.

FORD
06-30-2006, 03:40 PM
Originally posted by Warham
Yeah, I guess I'll give him credit for being a good fiction writer.

I've got nothing on Sideshow Bob. He just tied Cuba Gooding to the BCE somehow :confused:

Warham
06-30-2006, 03:46 PM
Originally posted by FORD
I've got nothing on Sideshow Bob. He just tied Cuba Gooding to the BCE somehow :confused:

I won't even discuss Bob.

At least your theories are entertaining, if unbelievable.

bobgnote
06-30-2006, 04:05 PM
NO POOFTERS FOR ME, thanx.

When a high-cast production goes on, the name indicates.

When the USA goes DOWN, it happens because of ASSHATS.

You guys are at least for Sciocia, right?

bobgnote
07-01-2006, 02:06 PM
What does John WANT to be like?

If he gets too Catholic, or the others stay that way, look out, republic.

It's a barometer-weather thing I just do, it's a gift.