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The death of habeas corpus
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of MSNBC
Posted: November 11th, 2006
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15220450/
The president has...managed to kill the writ of habeas corpus. Tonight, a special investigation, how that, in turn, kills nothing less than your Bill of Rights. Because the Mark Foley story began to break on the night of September 28...many people may not have noticed the bill passed by the Senate that night. Congress passed the Military Commissions Act to give Mr. Bush the power to deal effectively with Americas enemiesthose who seek to harm the country. He has been very clear on who he thinks that is. GEORGE W. BUSH: For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America. That fact that were discussing this program is helping the enemy. OLBERMANN: So, the president said it was urgent that Congress send him this bill as quickly as possible, not for the politics of next months elections, but for America. One bit of trivia that caught our eye was the elimination of habeas corpus, which apparently used to be the right of anyone whos tossed in prison to appear in court and say Hey, why am I in prison? COUNTDOWN has obtained a copy of [the] Constitution of the United States, and sources tell us it was originally sneaked through the constitutional convention and state ratification in order to establish Americas fundamental legal principles. Theres only one reference to habeas corpus: The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.
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