The case: Hedges et al v. Obama et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-cv-331.
There are still a few judges who have bothered to read The Constitution, it appears.
(Reuters) – A federal judge made permanent on Wednesday her order blocking enforcement of a U.S. law's provision that authorizes military detention for people deemed to have "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces."
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan had ruled in May in favor of non-profit groups and reporters whose work relates to conflicts in the Middle East and who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December.
Wednesday's 112-page opinion turns the temporary injunction of May into a permanent injunction. The United States appealed on August 6.
The permanent injunction prevents the U.S. government from enforcing a portion of Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act's "Homeland Battlefield" provisions.
This injunction effectively de-fangs the concept of the US Government playing "we'll detain but never charge, try or convict you" games with US citizens. With this section barred from use the government must now adhere to Due Process of Law, one of the founding principles of our nation.
The real question that stands before us, however, is not that a judge managed to read The Constitution and actually comprehend it, or was willing to speak truth to power.
It is that both sides of the aisle voted for and passed this outrage in the first place, and we the people now need to take a stand on whether we will allow this outrage to stand in the upcoming elections.
My bet is that we will, but we most-certainly should not.
The simple fact of the matter is that Habeas Corpus was in fact one of the issues that led to the American Revolution. Back in the 1770s colonists were often held without charges and without any opportunity to confront accusers, either in person or in the form of the alleged evidence against them. This barbarism was in no small part the reason that our forefathers took arms and ejected the British from what is now America, and wrote into the Constitution its protection.
Both Lincoln and Bush suspended that right. Neither had the Constitutional authority to do so, for the Constitution does not confer rights, it only recognizes them. By definition a right cannot be bestowed as it is an inherent thing — something that can be bestowed is not a right at all, but rather a privilege and thus is subject to revocation by the entity that granted it.
We have forgotten our heritage and how this nation came to be.
Fortunately, there is at least one Judge that remembers.
The question for our military members and for we, as as citizens, is this: Do you remember?
