The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. – Thomas Jefferson
The Supreme Court ruling granting the writ of habeas corpus to the 260 Guantanamo detainees is perhaps one of the most important human rights victories in recent years. Six and half years of detention, without charge, and plucked not from the "battlefield" as President George Bush remarks, but more often from homes and streets, the latest ruling will begin to expose the whole extent of injustice inside the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
Guantanamo detainees like Boumediene and six of his compatriots were arrested in Bosnia, accused of plotting to blow-up an US embassy. Initially detained by Bosnian authorities, they spent three months in jail then released by Bosnia and Herzegovina's Supreme Court for lack of evidence. The only battlefield these men faced was inside the confines of cages and indeed within their personal struggles, both emotional and physical.
The prospect of indefinite detention without charge is a gross violation of human rights and has shattered America's standing around the world. Underlying this whole issue is the use of torture and inhuman interrogation techniques that Bush does not want revealed. Granted access to federal courts, the detainees for the first time have a means to plead their cases and publicly voice the abuse they have suffered.
This is the Court's third ruling on the issue. An obsequious Congress sidelined the first two. Current presidential contender John McCain was the chief sponsor of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act preventing Guantanamo detainees access to civilian court thus effectively killing the Court's first decision. Despite suffering the horrors of torture himself in Vietnam and despite his desire to close the base, McCain nevertheless opposes the latest ruling.
Then in 2006 the Supreme Court opposed Bush's military commission because it lacked congressional approval. Two months later, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act preventing federal judges from hearing cases. Now this act has been ruled unconstitutional and will hopefully pave the way for shutting down one of the world's most notorious prisons.
