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High court judges Obama right, McCain wrong on liberties
When the U.S. Senate voted last September on whether to restore habeas corpus protections for those detained by the United States, the senators who would emerge as the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees for president parted company.
Illinois Democrat Barack Obama joined Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold in embracing the basic constitutional principle that individuals who are detained by the U.S. government have a right to challenge their detention -- no matter where they are held.
Arizona Republican John McCain rejected the wisdom of the Founders of the American experiment and voted against restoring habeas corpus protections for foreign suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and others who are detained by U.S. authorities.
Last week the Supreme Court said Obama was right and McCain was wrong.
A majority that included Republican and Democratic appointees to the high court issued a 5-4 decision holding -- in the words of Justice Anthony Kennedy -- that "the laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."
This was the third time the nation's highest court has rejected the claim of the Bush administration -- and allies such as McCain -- that the military has the authority to hold people it labels "enemy combatants."
Earlier this year, more than 125 constitutional experts signed a "Habeas Lawyers for Obama" letter, which noted that in Senate battles over habeas corpus, "Senator Obama personally lobbied colleagues who worried about the political ramifications of voting to preserve habeas corpus for the men held at Guantanamo. He has understood that our strength as a nation stems from our commitment to our core values, and that we are strong enough to protect both our security and those values."
"The writ of habeas corpus dates to the Magna Carta, and was enshrined by the Founders in our Constitution," the letter continued. "The administration's attack on habeas corpus rights is dangerous and wrong. America needs a president who will not triangulate this issue. We need a president who will restore the rule of law, demonstrate our commitment to human rights, and repair our reputation in the world community. Based on our work with him, we are convinced that Senator Obama can do this because he truly feels these issues 'in his bones.' "
Among the signers of that Jan. 28 letter were retired Rear Adm. John Dudley Hutson, the judge advocate general of the Navy from 1997 to 2000 who currently serves as president of Franklin Pierce Law Center, and retired Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, the judge advocate general of the Navy from 2000 to 2002 who currently serves as dean of Duquesne Law School.
Of course, Justice Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, will not be signing the "Habeas Lawyers for Obama" letter. Nor will the other Republican appointees -- Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter -- who formed the majority of the court's pro-habeas majority along with Democratic appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. But the justices have made it clear that Obama, a lawyer who has taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, was right in his judgment, as Kennedy wrote, that the framers "deemed the writ (of habeas corpus) to be an essential mechanism in the separation-of-powers scheme."
Associated Press
Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama
