United States Supreme Court Declares President Bush`s Detainee Procedure Unconstitutional
By: Tommy Elder, Jr.
In a broadside to the Bush Administration- the United States Supreme Court declared its policy of indefinite detention of prisoners in the Guantanamo Military facility without judicial review as unconstitutional. James Bravin of the Wall Street Journal reports that the High Tribunal in an opinion written by Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy- mandated that a district court start quickly the review of detainee cases.
As they studied the cases before the bench- some jurists implied that President ``had failed to follow the spirit of prior rulings`` that ordered a legal procedure that guarantees that innocent people were not incarcerated. To ensure that those not guility of a crime stayed out of detention- the High Court ordered that the Guantanamo Prison facility must grant to its detainees the right of habeas corpus. The habeas corpus right forces the government to prove before a court of law that enough evidence exist against a detainee to bring him to trial. Concerning this subject - Justice Kennedy wrote that- ``Habeas was not a technical procedure subject to arbitrary limits.` He stated that habeas is `a right of first importance` designed to stop `unlawful restraint.`
Writing for the minority opinion- Chief Justice John Roberts contended that the court moved too quickly. He asserted that the majority failed to allow for the many procedures in the Detention Law`s mandate to become fully operational.
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