Tell Congress to restore the Constitution,’ Washington Office urges Presbyterians
By Craig M. Kibler, Staff Writer, March 29, 2007
The Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is urging Presbyterians across the country to “tell Congress to restore the Constitution.”
In its “Witness in Washington” e-mail alert, the Washington Office states that Congress and President Bush “cast aside the Constitution and American values” by approving and signing into law the Military Commissions Act.
The stated purpose of the legislation is to “facilitate bringing to justice terrorists and other unlawful enemy combatants through full and fair trials by military commissions, and for other purposes.” It was approved by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 65-34 on Sept. 28, 2006, and by the U.S. House by a vote of 250-170-12 the next day. Bush signed the bill into law Oct. 17, 2006.
In its e-mail, the Washington Office says the Military Commissions Act “eliminated the Constitution’s due process protection of habeas corpus, the basic right to have a court decide if a person is imprisoned legally or illegally. The Military Commissions Act allows our government to continue to hold hundreds of prisoners for more than five years without charges, with no end in sight.”
The act, the Washington Office says, also “lets any president declare – on his or her own – who is an enemy combatant, decide who should be held indefinitely without being charged with a crime, and define what is – and what is not – torture and abuse.”
Challenge rejected
In a challenge to the law in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Salim Ahmed Hamdan’s case was rejected by Judge James Robertson, who ruled in favor of Hamdan in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay “violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions.”
In the Military Commissions Act case, however, Robertson wrote: “The Constitution does not provide alien enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay with the constitutional right to file a petition for habeas corpus in our civilian courts, and thus Congress may regulate those combatants’ access to the courts.”
Despite this legal setback, the Washington Office is urging Presbyterians to support proposed legislation called the “Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007” introduced by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).
The Washington Office says this bill “fixes all of the problems that the Military Commissions Act caused in undermining the Constitution and the rule of law. The legislation restores habeas corpus and due process at Guantanamo Bay and to other detainees held indefinitely by the federal government.”
The e-mail says the proposed legislation “stops any president from arbitrarily deciding who is an enemy combatant and ensures that no one will be prosecuted based on evidence literally beaten out of a witness. The bill makes clear that the Constitution is the law of the land – and that no president can make up his or her own rules regarding torture and abuse.”
The Washington Office then urges Presbyterians to contact their members of Congress to “tell them to defend due process, restore the Constitution, and protect what makes us Americans by co-sponsoring the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.”
Craig M. Kibler is the Director of Publications for the Presbyterian Lay Committee and Executive Editor of The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at cmkibler@www.layman.org.