I think everyone knows I don't like blogging about politics much and I'm already flirting with politics in the comments thread discussion about rocket fuel contamination, but I blogged back when we suspended habeas corpus so a brief note welcoming that the Supreme Court just struck down the suspension as unconstitutional seems in order to me. (It's a Hyperlink-a-pa-looza!) Even an "enemy combatant" has the right to see the evidence against them and to have a lawyer present. Somehow I still think the republic will survive. I also can't resist snarking that Justice Scalia dissented because we're "at war with radical Islamists" which first off in a strictly legal sense isn't true, so it doesn't belong in a Supreme Court statement. Second off, maybe we'd do better if we decided to be at war with people seeking to destroy the American way of life? Me, I say the right to a fair trial and the right to confront the evidence used to accuse someone of a crime is pretty key to that American way of life. People who say we have to give up that right because Daddy Government knows best and it's too dangerous for us to know what's really going on? Those are the ones that I think are dangerous to America.

So here we are - only a few days left before the country flushes the right of habeas corpus away in the name of grandstanding political theater. And lest someone say that it only changes against non-citizens that's not true - Americans can be declared "enemy combatants" as well. And once the new law passes they can't challenge that see, because they would require habeas corpus. As long as the President (any President mind you - not just good ol' Georgie) never makes a mistake, there's no problem, right? This will live in infamy for a long time - it's a dirty, dirty thing we've done for stupid partisan reasons. And for all the jokes about California politics that I've made over the years - I'm glad to live in a state where my elected representatives voted against torture and suspending the Constitution. Do you? Here's the vote roll calls - House and Senate. If somebody on your ballot voted for this, make darn sure you know what they voted for, and what exactly it is they've made you complicit in. And remember how you feel next time their elections roll around.

technorati tags:politics, habeas_corpus, Congress

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