Our wonderful judicial system at work...

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

In evaluating allegations that U.S. military forces deprived four British men of human rights during two years they were held captive in Guantanamo Bay prison, a U.S. appeals court found an innovative way to let the Bush administration off the hook. Two of three judges ruled the men — because they are not U.S. citizens and, technically, were not imprisoned in the U.S. — were not legally “persons” and, therefore, had no rights to violate. . . .


Source: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/08/6935/

[malaise]

1. Well maybe slaves in the South were lucky after all

They were considered three quarter human. This is madness.


What the fuck is legally human?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

4. It is madness -- that paragraph in the OP would make...

...good satire if it weren't true -- it should be something from a Monty Python sketch, but it's real.

I see little difference between this and the U.S. Supreme Court telling Dred Scott he must remain a slave.

Dred Scott first went to trial to sue for his freedom in 1847. Ten years later, after a decade of appeals and court reversals, his case was finally brought before the United States Supreme Court. In what is perhaps the most infamous case in its history, the court decided that all people of African ancestry -- slaves as well as those who were free -- could never become citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. Scott, needless to say, remained a slave. . .

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html

[Thothmes]

5. To circumvent this ruling

The Constitution of the United States had to be amended. The Dred Scott decision was the driving force behind the XIV Amendment.

[malaise]

8. That Dredd Scott ruling still frightens me

My maternal grandfather studied at Howard U and first told us about Dredd Scott. When I read my undergrad degree we had to study that famous case. Now I make sure my own students do the same. Sadly there are still people who would love to return to those days.
On the other hand we've come a long way.

[fasttense]

2. Typical right wing judicial illogic.

They will be coming up with more and more convoluted, bizarre logic to protect the criminals in charge.

I mean, look at the one the dancing supremes came up with in order to get the criminals in the WH in 2000. It would unduly injure bush. Don't count the votes, don't let the state handel it, don't follow the Constitution, we'll pick our friend and to Hell with justice and the law.

This is so typical of a banana republic and Pinochet's Chile.

[onethatcares]

3. and I see where this is leading

we're gonna have to prove we're "persons" now. There goes the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I thought the reasons we hated the communists were, they had secret prisons and you could be tortured because your neighbor turned you in, or you could be disappearred in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again, or tried on made up evidence in secret.

The grand illusion is over.

[Cerridwen]

6. And the next step...

"even though they were imprisoned in US prisons, they are not US citizens" and are not legally "persons" and, therefore have no rights to violate...

followed by

"though they are US citizens, they've committed a crime; as evidenced by the fact that they were imprisoned in US prisons" and "criminals" are not legally "persons" and, therefore have no rights to violate...

followed by

"US citizens who are suspected of committing a crime have forfeited their rights" and are not legally "persons" and therefore have no rights to violate...

In formalized debate, it's called the "edge of the wedge" or the "slippery slope" and is considered a logical fallacy. In the US "judicial" system is called precedent and is considered the law and rarely has anything to do with logic.

[annabanana]

7. THEIR "activist judges" can play twister like nobody's business.

Watch them pole vault over the Constitution and leap "common sense" in a single bound...

[Cerridwen]

9. Kick - this needs to stay in front of peoples' faces n/t

[spanone]

10. ain't democracy a wonderful animal...just make the shit up as you go along

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

11. Our country no longer bears any resemblence to a free democracy. nt.