Talk about a touchy subject. I have listened to several people discuss the Supreme Court ruling that enemy combatants are allowed a writ of Habeas Corpus. This basically means that they cannot be detained indefinitely without being charged for a crime and having the evidence against them presented.
A lot of people are upset about this ruling because detainees are considered terrorists and should not be extended rights such as this.
By extending these rights, we are not saying that someone is innocent or guilty, it just means that you need to charge them and punish them accordingly. This keeps the government in check by not allowing them to round up as many as they want or who they want without charging them with a crime. If there is not enough evidence or they cannot prove their guilt, the government needs to release them.
I understand that people are upset because most of these people have vowed to kill Americans and America’s allies, however, the detainees may not be those people. Think back to the Salem witch trials or the Red Scare of the 50’s (look up McCarthyism.)
The Supreme Court ruling, to me, does a couple of things. First, it shows that the “inalienable rights” that our founding fathers talked about are for everyone. The Declaration states that “all men are created equal, with certain unalienable rights.”
If they are guilty, charge them. Present evidence, have a ruling, sentence them. Cut and dry, simple.
By allowing the military or Federal government to hold them indefinitely without charging them is against our own beliefs, regardless of whether they are US citizens or not. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, given the Patriot Act, an American citizen could be shipped to Guantanamo Bay and held indefinitely as a terrorist or enemy combatant.
The US has taken it upon itself to promote democracy throughout the world and have backed up that desire to see democracy spread with military might. We go into countries that have not known democracy and tell them that they should be like us. We extend certain rights to our criminal population because of the laws that we live by. Here we are, as a model for the rest of the world, and we tell these people that we won’t honor our own code of ethics.
Are we 100% sure that the detainees in the American military detention facilities are terrorists? How do we know? I’m not sure they should be taken to courts presided over by American Federal judges, but they should be judged by their peers. They should have evidence presented to support their detention. Because they fit the profile or we believe they should be there, doesn’t mean that they should be there.
The court decision basically forces the government to prove that these individuals are terrorists and are a threat. If they are innocent, they should be released.
