Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy JAG lawyer who sued on behalf of a Guantanamo detainee, took the case to the Supreme Court and won -- and then got kicked out of the Navy for his efforts.
He wrote an article for the latest Esquire, talks about why Gitmo needs to be closed and the Military Commissions Act repealed.
"It's time to close Guantanamo Bay. Yes , I am the military officer who sued my commander in chief and the secretary of defense on behalf of a Guananamo Bay detainee named Salim Hamdan.
What I sought was simply that the president, just like the soldiers, sailors, and marines under his command, be required to comply with the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions. Because I believe that resorting to secret prisons, coercive interrogations, and the abandonment of the rule of law is not the way to keep our country safe from a handful of fanatics. Last summer, with the help of my civilian co-counsel, Professor Neal Katyal, and the law firm of Perkins Coie, I won the case in the Supreme Court of the United States. The problem is that the victory, as big as it was, was disdained by the administration, which has attempted to defy the Supreme Court and the rule of law by building Guantanamo up in the wake of the decision, instead of down. That needs to change...."
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0307swiftA lot of people like to dump on lawyers. But lawyers like Swift and many others (Morris Dees, for another example) are real heroes.
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