When you vote...: Habeas Corpus - not!

When you vote, keep in mind that the current Republican congressional majority passed legislation, almost certainly unconstitutional, that permits prosecutors to withhold evidence from some suspects and that strips the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear petitions from noncitizens for writs of habeas corpus, effectively preventing detainees from going to court to challenge their confinement. “Congress had no justification for suspending the writ of habeas corpus, a core value in American law, in order to avoid judicial review that prevents government abuse,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the New York Times.The bill was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that invalidated the system of military commissions Mr. Bush had set up for trying terrorism suspects, saying they required Congressional authorization. The court also required suspects to be treated in accordance with a provision of the Geneva Conventions, Common Article 3, which prohibits cruel and inhumane treatment, including “outrages upon personal dignity.”