A fundamental right in danger. [View All]

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A fundamental right in danger
By Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist | October 12, 2006

IT'S LONG been apparent that many US citizens would watch fundamental rights be swept away with hardly a shrug. But it's stunning that our congressmen, elected officials sworn to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, would actually vote to strip US courts of the power to protect essential rights. And yet that's exactly what happened when Congress recently approved the Military Commissions Act to govern the treatment and trial of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and other US detention facilities abroad.

In denying the writ of habeas corpus to noncitizens detained by the United States outside the country, Congress has turned its back on one of the most venerable of Constitutional protections: A prisoner's ability to go to court to challenge the lawfulness of his detention.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/10/12/a_fundamental_right_in_danger/