Recently, in a sharply divided ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court reportedly ruled that Guantanamo Bay detainees can challenge imprisonment in federal court while chastising an alternative review system (the Military Commissions Act of 2006) set up by Congress as unconstitutional — dealing another blow to the Bush administration’s ‘war on terrorism’ policy — concluding that foreigners held at Guantanamo Bay have the same rights as U.S. residents to seek writs of habeas corpus.
The Court’s 5-4 majority ruling will allow several hundred alleged terrorists to see the evidence justifying their imprisonment. Some of the alleged terrorists have been held for six years and have had no definitive judicial determination regarding the legality of their detention. The ruling marks the third time in four years that the Supreme Court has repudiated the Bush administration’s claims of being above the law.
The fascist four — Chief Justice John G. Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — dissented with the majority agreement. Roberts and Alito were appointed by Bush to the Supreme Court, which serves as an excellent argument as to why Supreme Court Justices should be elected, not appointed by a President. Scalia warned that ‘the nation will live to regret what the court has done today.’ Actually, Mr. Scalia, the nation regrets what the Supreme Court illicitly did in 2000 when Bush was appointed to the presidency. That decision was possibly the worst decision in U.S. history and has cost this country dearly.
With his usual corrupt ignorance, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called the ruling tremendously dangerous and irresponsible. Republican Presidential contender John McCain — also known as Bush Jr. — said the ruling is one of the worst in the history of this country. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who rose to power by exposing and exaggerating Democratic corruption, said the decision ‘could cost us a city.’