Thursday, June 12, 2008

U.S. Constitution 1, Bush 0

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled today that the prisoners held in captivity at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts. The majority was made up of Breyer, Ginsberg, Souter, Stevens, and Kennedy. The dissenters were Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas. Scalia commented that the "nation will live to regret what the court did today." I know, classy. Look, I have no doubt that many, perhaps even a majority, of the dudes being held at Gitmo are bad news. However, it's not even worth fighting the so called "war on terror" if the US treats its prisoners as subhuman demons without rights. Also, we can be almost certain that at least some of the prisoners being held in Cuba were innocents picked up by Afghan warlords and turned over to US forces in exchange for cash. Our system should be one that risks the possibility that some of the guilty may go free in order to ensure that NO innocents are punished. This decision will be lauded around the world and hopefully it will begin to mend our image.