5-4. Again.
Not the best decision on Gitmo yesterday. But it should bring into sharp relief just how critical the judicial appointments issue truly is. One more appointment to the Court just might have been the difference. Who occupies the Oval Office in the next term will make quite an impact....let's hope that it is for good (Constitutionalist) and not evil (judicial activist).
The fact that Captain Obstruction, AKA Senator Leahy, and his pals are running out the clock on this President's term in the hopes that Senator "Yes, We Can" Obama ushers in a new New Deal, a new Camelot and his Miss America interview promise for world peace -- all rolled into one liberal blob -- should not necessarily go unchallenged, particularly on the nominations front.
The conservative malaise is not without its completely justified origins. But no matter who will be the occupant of 1600 Penn, the occupants of the various federal benches around the nation will have a massive impact far beyond a lifetime of elections.
The boys in Leahy's crew would like very much for it to remain nice and quiet.
Good for McConnell, and Cornyn, and Specter and all of the awesome grassroots leaders who are pushing this boulder back up the hill, much to the consternation of lefties everywhere who are frantically saying "Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Ed Whelan's and Mark Levin's responses from National Review Online are quite interesting. The NRO editors weigh in here. and Senator Cornyn's always timely release on all things judicial is here.
Here is the link to the opinion online:
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/06-1195.pdf
posted by Daly Report @ 12:13 AM
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1 Comments:
The recent Supreme Court ruling that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts has to be one of the Court's less informed decisions. I certainly hope watch groups will follow the actions of "US civilian court judges" in light of this decision and call for impeachment of federal judges when necessary.
"The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times" I agree, but it should apply to those who respect and abide by the same laws and constitution that is affording them rights. When the Supreme Court without true regard for national security or the true understanding of intelligence, form a learned military or intelligence prospective now allows civilian judges or lower federal courts to hear and rule on terrorism suspects and detainees, undermining the efforts to keep the United States safe from persons who threaten this great nation. This ruling will now cause the government to disclose all of its information and evidence thus resulting in exposing intelligence operational material, capabilities and giving notice to "the bad guys" of sensitive national security information and procedures.
This ruling may allow a civilian court federal judge appointed for life, with a liberal agenda to free terrorism suspects and while hiding behind Lady Justice. When this happens, there will be another September 11Th because the Supreme Court has forgotten that extraordinary times calls for extraordinary measures. In response hopefully the people of this great nation will call for the impeachment of the cowardly judges.
THe framers of the Constitution intended the rights and fredoms to apply to the citizens of this land and not to terrorist or in their time the Pirates who terrorized the seas and ports of the oceans.
Early American Historian Gerard W. Gawalt wrote in his manuscript on the Thomas Jefferson Papers:
Before the United States obtained its independence in the American Revolution, 1775-83, American merchant ships and sailors had been protected from the ravages of the North African pirates by the naval and diplomatic power of Great Britain. British naval power and the tribute or subsidies Britain paid to the piratical states protected American vessels and crews. During the Revolution, the ships of the United States were protected by the 1778 alliance with France, which required the French nation to protect "American vessels and effects against all violence, insults, attacks, or depredations, on the part of the said Princes and States of Barbary or their subjects."
The terrorist today that that are now givin Constitutional rights by the Supreme Court are much like the terroris of old - the The Barbary pirates, also sometimes called Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers that operated from North Africa, from the time of the Crusades until the early 19th century. Based in Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salé and ports in Morocco, they preyed on Christian and other non-Islamic shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea.
Least we not forget history from the time the Constitution was framed. In 1783 the United States made peace with, and gained recognition from, the British monarchy, and in 1784 the first American ship was seized by pirates from Morocco, which in 1777 had been the first independent nation to recognize the United States. After six months of negotiation, a treaty was signed, $60,000 cash was paid, and trade began. But Algeria was different. In 1785 two ships (the Maria of Boston and the Dauphin of Philadelphia) were seized, everything sold and their crews ordered to build port fortifications.
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, then the ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the Continental Congress:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.
American ships sailing in the Mediterranean chose to travel close to larger convoys of other European powers who had bribed the pirates. Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual revenues in 1800. In the early 1800s, President Thomas Jefferson proposed a league of smaller nations to patrol the area, but the United States could not contribute. For the prisoners, Algeria wanted $60,000, while America offered only $4,000. Jefferson said a million dollars would buy them off, but Congress would only appropriate $80,000. For eleven years, Americans who lived in Algeria lived as slaves to Algerian Moors. For a while, Portugal was patrolling the Straits of Gibraltar and preventing Barbary Pirates from entering the Atlantic. But they made a cash deal with the pirates, and they were again sailing into the Atlantic and engaging in piracy. By late 1793, a dozen American ships had been captured, goods stripped and everyone enslaved. Portugal had offered some armed patrols, but American merchants needed an armed American presence to sail near Europe. After some serious debate, the United States Navy was born in March 1794. Six frigates were authorized, and so began the construction of the United States, the Constellation, the Constitution and three other frigates.
This new military presence helped to stiffen American resolve to resist the continuation of tribute payments, leading to the two Barbary Wars along the North African coast: the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805 and the Second Barbary War in 1815. It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s.
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