The Brink
When the Supreme Court stepped up and put an end to the insanity of the Bush Administration’s detention policies this past summer, I finally had a glimmer of hope that the country might finally be stepping back from the brink of an Orwellian future.
Not so fast, Congress seems to have said last night. The new detention law has three particularly troubling provisions. First, it defines the already vague and broad term of “enemy combatant” to be even more vague and broad. When concepts with profound legal weight are vague and broad, bad things happen; innocent people inevitably end up the victims. Second, it allows non-citizens within the boundaries of U.S. territory to be apprehended as enemy combatants, and thus subject to the rules of the law. The “battlefield” thus knows no bounds. Finally, and most troublingly, the law suspends the right of habeas corpus to those detained under the law. Put simply, if the Bush Administration accuses you of being an enemy combatant, you have no recourse to contest that designation within the U.S. courts, and can be detained indefinitely.
It’s at times like this I’m ashamed to be an American. I can only hope the Court again steps in and pulls us back from the brink, and that the obviously political calculations of bringing this vote up before the mid-term elections fails and the Republicans lose their hold on power. Can’t say that I’m optimistic though.
