Graham: Amend Constitution to overturn court’s ruling + McCain: Ruling One of the ‘Worst Decisions’ in History

Dandelion Salad

By James Rosen
McClatchy Newspapers
June 12, 2008

WASHINGTON — A dejected Sen. Lindsey Graham blasted the Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday on Guantanamo Bay detainees, calling it “dangerous and irresponsible.”

The South Carolina Republican, who’s also a military lawyer and a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, helped craft the Military Commissions Act and had confidently predicted that it would pass high court muster.

The Supreme Court repudiated Graham in a 5-4 decision, ruling that the 270 alleged terrorists being held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba have a constitutional right to challenge their detentions in federal courts.

…continued

h/t: ICH

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McCain: Guantanamo Ruling One of the ‘Worst Decisions’ in History

by FOXNews.com
Friday, June 13, 2008

John McCain said Friday that the Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo Bay detainees is “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

The presumptive GOP nominee said the decision, a 5-4 ruling Thursday that determined Guantanamo detainees have the right to seek release in civilian courts, would lead to a wave of frivolous challenges.

“We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called … habeas corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases,” he said at a town hall meeting in New Jersey.

McCain said he has worked hard to ensure the U.S. military does not torture prisoners but that the detainees at Guantanamo are still “enemy combatants.”

“These are people who are not citizens. They do not and never have been given the rights that citizens in this country have,” he said. “Now, my friends, there are some bad people down there. There are some bad people.”

…continued

h/t: ICH

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Supreme Court ruling could free scores from Guantanamo

By Michael Doyle and Carol Rosenberg
McClatchy Newspapers
June 12, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s landmark Guantanamo Bay decision Thursday could free foreign prisoners while it inflames Capitol Hill.

Some consequences are immediate, for a case that’s big legally, politically and militarily. Within hours of the court’s decision in the combined cases known as Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States, attorneys were preparing to demand hearings for detainees long held without charges.

These habeas corpus hearings before federal judges will force the Bush administration to reveal its evidence and expose publicly how the detainees have been treated. Some attorneys think that the administration simply will start releasing detainees to avoid the potentially embarrassing hearings altogether.

“Frankly, I don’t think the government is going to want to continue to hold these detainees,” predicted Matthew MacLean, co-counsel for a detainee named Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad al Odah.

…continued

h/t: ICH

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Bush Strongly Disagrees With Recent Supreme Court Decision! (Gitmo)