Beginning to restore the Constitution?

This could be a very important start to restoring proper constitutional government in the US, and reclaiming moral leadership in the world.

 

Legislators may reconsider suspending habeas corpus for detainees

 

President Bush's victory in getting the rules he wanted to try suspected terrorists could be diminished.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee [Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa] signaled this week that he'll join prominent Democrats in seeking to restore legal rights to hundreds of suspected terrorists confined at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

"The Constitution of the United States is explicit that habeas corpus may be suspended only in time of rebellion or invasion," Specter said on the floor. "We are suffering neither of those alternatives at the present time. We have not been invaded, and there has not been a rebellion. That much is conceded."

"Since then, the American people have spoken against the administration's stay- the-course approach to national security and against a rubber-stamp Congress that accommodated this administration's efforts to grab more and more power," [Sen. Patrick] Leahy [D- Vt.] said. "Abolishing habeas corpus for anyone who the government thinks might have assisted enemies of the United States is unnecessary and morally wrong. It is a betrayal of the most basic values of freedom for which America stands."

These early rumblings on Capitol Hill are a far cry from actual legislation.  Hopefully this will continue to develop and be the first serious and substantial consequence of the Democrats taking over Congress after the '06 elections.

GP