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And Another Right Bites the Dust
By Natalia Pye '07
STAFF WRITER

After spending several summers working for a criminal defense attorney, I have come to realize that everyone, no matter how clearly guilty they are, deserves the right to make their case in court and to allow mitigating circumstances to be taken into account.

Happily, because of our constitutionally guaranteed rights, we are able to have our day in court, be it for a parking ticket or for more serious charges. This is part of the beauty of the American judicial system; though the wheels of justice may grind slowly, they do grind.

In the final days of September, however, the judicial process came to a violent halt for many who needed it. Congress has passed a bill that legislates the treatment of the unknown numbers of people classified as “foreign enemy combatants,” putting a statutory stamp of approval on the increasingly broad powers of the president.

The bill, among other things, gives the president the authority to determine who classifies as an enemy combatant and removes these people from the jurisdiction of the mainstream court system to be prosecuted in shadowy secret tribunals. The president is further allowed to interpret the Geneva Convention statutes on the proper treatment of prisoners, an interpretation that is given no forum for scrutiny, much less the chance for those affected to appeal this decision in court.

While this is extremely alarming, the worst is yet to come. The most alarming aspect of the bill is its stipulation that those determined to be enemy combatants, and even those “awaiting such determination,” are not able to file a writ of habeas corpus in any court, public or secretive.

Habeas corpus, literally meaning, “you should have the body,” is understood to be one of the most vital constitutional rights we possess. It guarantees one’s right to appear in court, preventing unjust imprisonment and ensuring that everyone is able to make his or her case known.

By stripping this right from those determined to be “foreign enemy combatants,” the people imprisoned in Guantanimo Bay for years without ever being told what, if any, charges or pieces of evidence are being held against them, have lost their most valuable source of legal recourse.

This measure is the stuff of Orwellian novels and marks an alarming shift in power on Capitol Hill, concentrating authority in the hands of the president and leaving the legislative and judicial branches with less and less ability to make checks and balances.

What is most alarming, however, is that this shift has been going on for years without any widespread public outcry. As Americans we are extremely blessed to have inherited a Constitution and Bill of Rights that protects us from a great deal of government intervention in our everyday lives. In order to be worthy of that blessing, however, it is our duty, to ourselves, to our forefathers, and to those who will come after us, to defend those rights rather than to watch them simply trickle away.