Under New Law, Americans Must Guard Against Abuse of Power

by Phillis D. Engelbert and Lily Jarman-Reisch, excerpted from a Truthout article

This fall, Congress approved and Bush signed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), a bill that undermines several tenets of the US Constitution and international law...We urge everyone to learn the full scope and impact of this hastily approved bill and to remain vigilant against excesses in its implementation.

The MCA is so radical and sweeping…Gone are guarantees that individuals accused of crimes can know the charges against them, challenge their detention and conditions of detention, receive a speedy trial, see the evidence against them, be represented by a lawyer of their choosing, be treated humanely, not have evidence introduced against them obtained through coercion and be judged by an impartial person or persons.

Gone are the checks and balances that keep one branch of government (the executive) from gaining too much power at the expense of another (the judiciary). The US has long been looked upon as the standard-bearer of human rights and due process around the world... (But this law trashes those standards.)

The aspect of the MCA most troubling to legal scholars is its denial of habeas corpus - the right of a prisoner to challenge his or her detention as unlawful - to (anyone) designated "enemy combatants." Habeas corpus is a cornerstone of our Constitution (its suspension is allowed only in cases of invasion or insurrection - of which we have neither)…

It is widely anticipated that the MCA will eventually be struck down as unconstitutional. That process, however, will take time. In the meantime, it is important that citizens act as a check and balance to the executive branch. It is up to us to protest abuses of due process at Guantanamo and any liberal sprinkling of the label "enemy combatant."

We must take a stand against torture. Amnesty International has launched "America I Believe In" - a campaign "to restore our traditional American values of justice, rule of law and human dignity." Learn about that campaign at www.amnestyusa.org.

…It’s not too late to take our country back.