American liberty at the precipice

When even the conservative New York Times runs a headline like American liberty at the precipice, you know that what the progressive people have been saying for years might have a grain of truth in it:

"In another low moment for American justice, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that detainees held at the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, do not have the right to be heard in court. The ruling relied on a shameful law that President Bush stampeded through Congress last fall that gives dangerously short shrift to the Constitution.

"The right of prisoners to challenge their confinement — habeas corpus — is enshrined in the Constitution and is central to American liberty. Congress and the Supreme Court should act quickly and forcefully to undo the grievous damage that last fall’s law — and this week’s ruling — have done to this basic freedom ..."

Tagged: guantanamo, liberty, civil+rights, human+rights, usa