Did the Supreme Court Just Gut Habeas Rights?

[marmar]

from Mother Jones:


The Supreme Court's decision on Monday not to hear appeals from a group of Gitmo detainees leaves the remaining 169 detainees at the facility with little chance of securing their freedom through US courts.

In the 2008 case Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled detainees at Gitmo could challenge their detention in US courts. That decision was seen as effectively ending the Bush administration's attempt to carve out a legal black hole for suspected terror detainees. Shortly thereafter, Gitmo detainees began appealing their detentions—and frequently winning in court. But in the years since the decision, conservative judges on the D.C. Circuit have interpreted the law in a way that assumes many of the government's claims are true and don't have to be proven in court. By not taking any of these cases, the Supreme Court has ensured these stricter rules will prevail. Civil libertarian groups say that essentially leaves detainees at Gitmo with habeas rights in name only, since the rules make it virtually impossible for detainees to win in court. A Seton Hall University School of Law report from May found that, prior to the D.C. Circuit's reinterpretation of the rules, detainees won 56 percent of cases. Afterwards, they won eight percent.

Others, such as the Brookings Institution's Benjamin Wittes, have argued that more detainee losses don't mean the new standards are unfair. In May, Wittes wrote, "I don’t think one can simply assume that a world in which detainees aren’t winning is a world in which review is meaningless either. Maybe, just maybe, it's a world in which a lot of detainees are more likely than not—based on the available materials—'part of' enemy forces." .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/06/did-supreme-court-just-gut-habeas

[xchrom]

1. Seems to me everyone has become an 'enemy force'. Nt

[rhett o rick]

2. Didnt you get the memo. The Constitution has been cancelled. nm