The Constitution Project: House Hears Call for Habeas Restoration on Historic Day of Action
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 27, 2007
4:29 PM
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CONTACT: The Constitution Project
Corey Owens
The Constitution Project
Communications Coordinator
(202) 580-6922
cowens@constitutionproject.org
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House Hears Call for Habeas Restoration on Historic Day of Action
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WASHINGTON - JUNE 26 - On the same day that thousands of activists from around the country took to Capitol Hill to urge their members of Congress to restore the habeas corpus rights eliminated by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, a House subcommittee heard a similar call from a panel of policy experts and political leaders. The House Judiciary Subcommitee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties - chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) - heard testimony from the bipartisan panel during its "Oversight Hearing on Habeas Corpus and Detentions at Guantanamo Bay."
The subcommittee heard expert testimony from William H. Taft, IV, Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, Permanent US Representative to NATO under President George H.W. Bush, and legal adivsor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the current administration. Taft, a member of the Constitution Project's Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances, told the subcommittee that restoring the habeas rights eliminated by the Military Commissions Act makes a great deal of both legal and strategic sense:
"Before the enactment of the Military Commissions Act last year, detainees in Guantanamo were entitled ... to have the lawfulness of their detention reviewed after filing petitions for habeas corpus. The benefits of this procedure were considerable, not so much for the detainees - none of whom was released by a court - as for establishing beyond argument the legitimacy of holding persons who continued to present a threat to the United States as long as the terrorists continue to fight us."
"Chairman Nadler has, yet again, demonstrated his outstanding commitment to the cause of restoring habeas corpus," said Virginia Sloan, president of the Constitution Project. "In wars between uniformed armies, recognizing the enemy is a matter of recognizing a flag. We now find ourselves in a war without uniforms, flags, or even set battlefields. Identifying those prisoners who are actual threats and whom we are entitled and need to detain is thus significantly more difficult, and we should take advantage of the courts' expertise in performing this task."
For more information on the Constitution Project, please visit http://www.constitutionproject.org.
To view the statement of the Constitution Project's Liberty and Security Committee and Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances on the need to restore habeas corpus, please visit http://www.constitutionproject.org/pdf/MCA_Statement.pdf.
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