Another Setback for Bush

For the third time, and by the narrowest of margins, the Supreme Court has handed Bush a defeat.

Yesterday, by a 5-4 vote, the Supremes upheld the right of prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay to have access to legal counsel, due process, and the right of habeas corpus.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Habeas Corpus is a legal term that refers to the right of a person being held against his will to petition the Court and ask that the government show why they are being held.

Some of the men in "Gitmo" have been there for up to 6 years, including one who was in Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission when he was captured by Pakistani bounty hunters.

The right of Habeas Corpus is an important and long standing one which the Court upheld.

By the way, the dissenters were Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, Justice Scalia, and Justice Thomas.

Some of you may be interested in taking a look at a blog entry I posted on my Don't Be a Lemming website. Although a lot of fuss was made over Roberts' and Alito's  stances on abortion, that's not why they were nominated for these positions. They were nominated because they were expected to, and do, support an expansion of the conservative policies, executive powers, and corporate interests. This dissenting opinion is an excellent example of what kind of judiciary Bush and the other uber-conservative Repugs and thugs would like to have issuing a final opinion on our rights.

By the way, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Gramm are now making noises about legislation and constitutional amendments to narrow what Habeas Corpus means. The American people will prove their lemmingness once again if we blindly allow them to tinker with our constitutional rights (which are what separate us from the rest of the world) under the guise of "gotta stop terrorism". Look what happened when all of the eleted officials jumped on the Patriot Act bandwagon.