Monday, June 11, 2012

Habeas Corpus is officially DEAD

Once the cornerstone of the free world- Habeas Corpus -the centuries old proposition that, in essence, allows one to come before the court and demand to be told why they are being held- is now dead. The D.C. Circuit, which is the appellate court for all of the Guantanamo cases has ruled against the men held at Guantanamo in every single case, basically finding that any reason (OR NO REASON) that the military/executive branch states for holding someone is good enough-- and today the Supreme Court refused to review any of the seven cases that were seeking to overturn the DC Circuit.
Emptywheel has a nice tidy summary here and ScotUS blog has a more in depth look here.