Supreme Court upholds rights of Guantanamo inmatesOn March 8 this year, the Fellowship of Reconciliation co-sponsored a series of events in Washington D.C. to draw attention to the plight of 600 foreign nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay and to call for due process. Another co-sponsor, the National Council of Churches, was among signatories to a “friend of the court” brief supporting the due process rights of the Guantanamo detainees, filed in January by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Now, as a result of a Supreme Court ruling, those detainees finally have the right to challenge the legality of their detention in a U.S. court. Significantly, the majority of justices found nothing in the law of habeas corpus (Latin for "you have the body") that precluded it from being applied to foreign nationals in U.S. custody. The detainees now have the right to hire lawyers to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, mandating prison officials to bring the inmate to court so that it can be determined if the detention is legal. In addition to the Guantanamo case, the Court ruled that a U.S. citizen, Yaser Hamdi, also had the right to contest his indefinite detention. Hamdi and another U.S. citizen, Jose Padilla, are currently being held without charges or a trial, without access to lawyers or even the right to remain silent. Supporters of the rights of the detainees are not proclaiming them innocent. The issue is not their guilt or innocence but their right to due process. The question before the Supreme Court was whether the U.S. government has the right to brand an entire class of detainees as outside the oversight of the judicial system, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law. . With its ruling, the Supreme Court has applied a significant brake on the Administration's ability to circumvent the rule of law, in the name of the "war on terror." The FOR hopes that lawsuits will proceed with due speed and that the detainees will have the opportunity to make their case, as guaranteed under U.S. law. Contact: Jennifer Hyman, FOR Communications (845) 358-4601 communications@forusa.org For responses of other sponsors of the March 8 event: The National Council of Churches www.ncccusa.org Amnesty USA www.amnestyusa.org The Center for Constitutional Rights http://www.ccr-ny.org The American Civil Liberties Union www.aclu.org
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