No Terrorist Lawsuits (Bush administration victory)

Real Clear Politics ^ | November 17, 2005 | Robert Novak

[Ben Mugged]

The troubled Bush administration won a rare victory this week. The Senate voted to close federal courts to Salim Gherebi, an enemy combatant imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. He is suing the president and the secretary of defense for $100 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages for violation of his rights under the U.S. Constitution. His is one of 174 suits filed on behalf of terrorist detainees, none of them U.S. citizens, that have undermined the war against terrorism.

That outcome is indeed the purpose of suits instigated by left-wing American lawyers. Court filings demanding high-speed Internet service, claiming medical malpractice and seeking DVDs fail to release many prisoners, but they do hamstring U.S. intelligence. The Senate's action this week keeps non-citizen aliens from using habeas corpus, invoked throughout the country's history to protect citizens from illegal imprisonment.

"Never in the history of the law of armed conflict," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told the Senate Monday, "has a military prisoner, an enemy combatant, been granted access to any court system, federal or otherwise, to have a federal judge come in and start running the prison." Graham's proposal for the third time in American history would suspend habeas corpus, following Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Remarkably, 44 Senators voted Tuesday to permit legal harassment by enemy combatants.

[Ben Mugged]

Doesn't say the ACLU was involved but it smells like their work.

[popdonnelly]

C'mon Novak, we're waiting for you to reveal your source.

[marlon]

Yeah the "troubled Bush administration" would be much less so if you had kept your damn mouth shut.

[nikos1121]

Who are the 44 senators?

[sgtbono2002]

This problem could have been solved with a double pop on the field of battle. Keep Imbeds out of the way and let the Soldiers do their job.

[wildbill]

Imagine what the lawyers could do by court shopping into district courts that have liberal juries.

[OldYank1]

This seems very serious. 44 senators voted to give our constitutional rights to our enemys? I think the 44 should be named and held accountable for their reasoning.

[talleyman]

What-you-said bump.

[LaineyDee]

He is suing the president and the secretary of defense for $100 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages for violation of his rights under the U.S. Constitution.

???? He doesn't HAVE rights under our Constitution if he isn't a U.S. citizen.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

So the Dems want to give terrorists billions of our dollars?

The Pubs need to get this in a commercial. Say in New York. About a week before the Senate elections.

[GAB-1955]

" He doesn't HAVE rights under our Constitution if he isn't a U.S. citizen."

No, any person who resides in the United States has rights guaranteed by the Constitution, except for holding office and having the franchise. But these yahoos are in Cuba, "free territory of the Americas!" They need to sue in Cuban courts... if Cuba recognized the U.S. lease on Gitmo.

[Albion Wilde]

ping

[TChris]

What was the number of the bill? Does anybody have the vote tabulation?

[BufordP]

How the 44 scalawags voted

YEAs ---44
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Carper (D-DE) Chafee (R-RI) Clinton (D-NY) Dayton (D-MN) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI)	Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Jeffords (I-VT) Johnson (D-SD) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lincoln (D-AR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA)	Nelson (D-FL) Obama (D-IL) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sarbanes (D-MD) Schumer (D-NY) Smith (R-OR) Specter (R-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Sununu (R-NH) Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---54
Allard (R-CO) Allen (R-VA) Bayh (D-IN) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burns (R-MT) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Cornyn (R-TX) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID)	DeMint (R-SC) DeWine (R-OH) Dole (R-NC) Domenici (R-NM) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Frist (R-TN) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Kyl (R-AZ) Lieberman (D-CT) Lott (R-MS)	Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Nelson (D-NE) Roberts (R-KS) Santorum (R-PA) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Snowe (R-ME) Stevens (R-AK) Talent (R-MO) Thomas (R-WY) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA)

Not Voting - 2
Alexander (R-TN)	Corzine (D-NJ)

[BufordP]

Thanks for the ping. You're welcome to use me for a punching bag tomorrow provided you keep it below the chin.
:-)

It's therapeutic. Make ya feel better.

[BufordP]

Look at that! 3 Repubs voted to wreck havoc on our criminal court system.

Smith (R-OR), Specter (R-PA), Sununu (R-NH)

[concretebob]

Well, at least my two (Allen, Warner) showed some sense..
I expect nothing less from Arlen (The Magic Bullet) Specter..