Congress tries to undo Supreme Court Gitmo decision
Human rights campaigners are calling it the 'November surprise' - a last-minute amendment smuggled into a Pentagon finance bill in the US Senate last Thursday.
It reverses the Supreme Court's decision in June last year which affirmed the right of detainees to bring habeas corpus petitions in American federal courts.
Even if this manages to pass without being changed, it won't do much beyond delay the process. The Sumpreme Court has been very consistant is saying that Congress can not take constitutional matters out of the courts hands. But that will mean another year or more delay in the whole cycle before we arrive back at the step we are at now.
The dangerous part is that the court might accept a change in the rules that cuts the detainees off from access to lawyers or the court. Having rights does not mean much if you are never allowed to enforce them.
Jay