Score One for the Good Guys

Last week the US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision handed the Bush Administration another defeat in his attempts to override the US Constitution. This opinion concerned prisoners being held at Guantanamo (Gitmo). There have been a lot of foul cries from Bush cheerleaders over this decision. I suspect most complainers have not taken time to read the 100 plus page decision which will not release any prisoners. What the decision does do is gives the prisoners the right to petition US Courts for the right to due process and an shown they should be held indefinitely (or a habeas corpus hearing in legal terms). What is wrong with that? How can we Christians allow our government the right to detain someone definitely without any type of hearing?

I am sure most of the prisoners held in Gitmo are there on just cause. However, how do we know some poor bastard has not been mistakenly yanked from his village in the middle of the night and submitted to torture for information he has no knowledge to provide? There has to be some type of check and balance to insure this has not happened. Suppose some rogue Iraqi official decided to rid himself of a law abiding arch rival and provide enough untruthful information to convince US soldiers to believe he is a terrorist? Bush has asked us to trust our tired overworked and underpaid troops to detain the right persons. I don't think this is a good idea. I've being around our criminal justice system long enough to see a number of mistaken arrests.

It appears the neoconservatives are using an important, but not situation changing, decision to put fear in voters that the makeup of the Supreme Court needs to be changed. Americans who care about their civil rights are furtunate there are five justices who feel the same way.