JURIST - Paper Chase: Senate Judiciary leaders introduce bill to restore habeas rights for detainees

JURIST - Paper Chase: Senate Judiciary leaders introduce bill to restore habeas rights for detainees: "JURIST] US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website; JURIST news archive], outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website], and current ranking member of the committee Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] have introduced a bill which would restore habeas corpus rights to military detainees [JURIST news archive] and amend the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [JURIST news archive]. A key provision in the MCA, which President Bush signed into law [JURIST report] last month, strips US courts of jurisdiction to consider writs of habeas corpus filed by detainees classified as enemy combatants.

Introducing the bill [statement text], S. 4081, Leahy said:

This bill would restore the great writ of habeas corpus, a cornerstone of American liberty for hundreds of years that Congress and the President rolled back in an unprecedented and unnecessary way with September's Military Commissions Act. Habeas corpus provides a remedy against arbitrary detentions and constitutional violations. It guarantees an opportunity to go to court, with the aid of a lawyer, to prove one's innocence. The Military Commissions Act eliminated that right, permanently, for any non-citizen determined to be an enemy combatant, or even 'awaiting' such a determination. That includes the approximately 12 million lawful permanent residents in the United States today, people who work for American firms, raise American kids, and pay American taxes."