On losing habeas corpus posted 9-29-2006

 
The end of habeas corpus.

With the capitulation of the Senate, the dotard George W. Bush has undone 200 years of legal protection for all Americans, and the public has said nothing. It may not even be aware of the loss, despite the news coverage.

This is so deeply disturbing that one doesn't even know where to begin. If one needed more evidence of the aggressively witless bombast of the chief executive or what depraved, power-crazed jackals he has for counselors in Cheney and Rumsfeld, this would be it.

For those who are blissfully unaware, having been going about their daily business without really paying attention to the news, the U.S. Senate, under pressure from the White House and after some token protest by Republican moderates, caved in and came to a compromise agreement on a bill that allows suspected terrorists to be held indefinitely, without being charged and without legal representation. They need not be told why they are being held or what their supposed crimes are, need not be told what evidence — if any — there is against them, need not be given any opportunity or means to defend themselves, for as long as government officials see fit.

This is a move that rankles not only legal scholars and civil libertarians but that also gives the military's Judge Advocate General corps pause. The latter has worriedly pointed out to anyone who will listen that this sets a dangerous precedent and can be used against our own troops abroad. Bush fils is not among those who are listening.

The catch here is that it isn't merely our troops who are endangered by curtailing habeas corpus. What can be done to the few can be done to the many. This is a direct threat to you and me. All that's required is for some government agency to decide that you're a suspect, reasonably or not, and you vanish into the legal system, perhaps forever — without rights or recourse. This bill endangers all of us from this moment on, unless and until the U.S. Supreme Court decides to slap the president upside the head with a hardcover copy of the Constitution and undo the damage. And that can't happen until someone sues to challenge the bill. That could take a while.

Meanwhile, we have all been stripped of two centuries' worth of legal protection that the Revolutionary War was fought to give us. Under habeas corpus, a government or authority must produce the accused and either show cause why the accused should be held or release the person. Holding people in custody without charges, without explanation, without representation or recourse is exactly what the British did to the American colonists, which explains why the founding fathers were so insistent on protecting the right of habeas corpus once the colonies became a nation.

Habeas corpus goes to the heart of who we are as a people and the rights we believe in, the kind of government we have. It is at the core of the Constitution. In damaging habeas corpus, we undo the base structure of democratic self-government. This isn't an insect bite or a paper cut on the body politic — it's breaking bones. If W. Bush didn't learn at least this much in law school, then he learned nothing at all.

Suspending habeas corpus is a big enough deal that it's only been done once in U.S. history. Abraham Lincoln suspended it at the start of the Civil War, and even he was uneasy about it. When the time came to renew that suspension, he asked Congress to undo the deed instead. And so it was, until now. Except that Bush, et al., aren't talking about merely suspending habeas corpus; suspension implies that there would be a time limit, and the Bush cabal makes no such promises. Not that their promises would be worth anything anyway, as much lying as they've done in six years.

The end of habeas corpus, W. claims, is what we need to prosecute the War on Terror more effectively; but as that isn't a real war against a real state but instead a violent clash of political, cultural and religious hegemony and ideas, promoted by individuals, the risk will forever be there. Which means it's the Neverending War, and we can expect W. and his ilk to give us more truckloads of manure in the form of reasons why they need to cut yet more civil liberties in the future. Believe it: this is only the beginning, as those who warned us about the Patriot Act foretold.

This, unlike lying about whether or not an intern was sucking you off under the Oval Office desk, is an act truly worthy of impeachment. This threatens the people, therefore the nation, far more than terrorists. But impeachment, of course, will never happen unless the voters give Democrats the majority in both House and Senate in November. How much more provocation does the public need?

This, THIS is the moment Santayana referred to when he said that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is the reason you should have been paying attention in American History class, why you shouldn't have been whining about studying the U.S. Constitution because you were supposedly never going to use that knowledge again in adulthood: so that you could recognize the moment when an arrogant, autocratic political idiot-savant like George W. Bush was gutting your future, and speak up. So that you'd know a power grab when you saw it and could defend yourself against a politician who treats government like his own personal dynasty — by firing him.

And if you don't speak up now, if you don't beat down the doors of the White House with calls and e-mails and deluge your congressmen and senators with protests, you deserve every bit of despotism that will be visited upon you as a result. Every last one of you who said nothing will have earned this: it will be your fault every bit as much as George Bush's.

Unfortunately, however, the disastrous consequences will also be imposed on the rest of us, even though we may have protested long and loudly and voted our consciences.

Pardon me if I'm more than a little bit pissed off about that.