BigRob said: The Supreme Court did not rule we had to release anyone.... what are you talking about?
Appeals court rules Gitmo detainees are not ‘persons’
Raw Story
A Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are not “persons” according to it’s interpretation of a statute involving religious freedom.
The ruling sprang from an appeal of Rasul v. Rumsfeld, which was thrown out in Jan. 2008. “The court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the constitutional and international law claims, and reversed the district court’s decision that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) applied to Guantanamo detainees, dismissing those claims as well,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said.
After the Supreme Court recognized, over objections from the Bush administration, that terror war prisoners have the right to habeas corpus petitions, it also directed the D.C. court of appeals to reexamine the case.
The suit, Rasul v. Rumsfeld, charges numerous Bush administration officials with “violations of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA),” CCR said.
“In its first filing on detention and torture under the Obama administration, the Department of Justice filed briefs in March urging the Court of Appeals to reject any constitutional or statutory rights for detainees,” says a release. “The Obama Justice Department further argued that even if such rights were recognized, the Court should rule that the previous administration’s officials who ordered and approved torture and abuse of the plaintiffs should be immune from liability for their actions.”
“[The] Court reaffirmed its decision from last year that detainees are not ‘persons’ for the purposes of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was enacted in 1993 to protect against government actions that unreasonably interfere with religious practices,” the release continued. “Last year, Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a member of the Court of Appeals panel who issued the decision today, referred to the Court’s holding that detainees are not ‘persons’ as ‘a most regrettable holding in a case where plaintiffs have alleged high-level U.S. government officials treated them as less than human.’”
The full press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights follows.
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Court Of Appeals Rules Detainees Are Not “Persons” in Guantánamo Torture Suit
Court Agrees with Obama Administration that Detainees Still Have No Constitutional Right Not to Be Tortured
April 24, 2009 Washington, D.C. – In a suit brought by British men imprisoned for two years at Guantanamo, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today reaffirmed its previous ruling that Guantanamo detainees lack the fundamental constitutional right not to be tortured and are not “persons” under a U.S. statute protecting religious freedom.
Last summer, the Supreme Court directed the Court of Appeals to reconsider its previous decision in Rasul v. Rumsfeld, in light of the High Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush, which recognized the constitutional right of habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees. The plaintiffs urged the Court of Appeals to follow the clear logic of the Boumediene decision and to recognize both the constitutional rights of the detainees to humane and just treatment and the fact that, under any definition of the word, they are “persons” entitled to religious freedom and dignity as required by law.
http://waronyou.com/topics/appeals-court-rules-gitmo-detainees-are-not-persons/
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I've lost the other link for the ruling last year that prompted the courts ruling about the lack of due process for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the court order get this done or release them ASAP. But I'll find it!!!
This recent appeals hearing is more fuel for the fire of the reason that Bush Administration was SO SKIRTING AROUND THE ISSUE OF WHAT TO CALL THE P.O.W. AND WHAT NOT TO CALL THEM...Keeping them 'NO NAMED' was very, very logistical and in his favor and his group of henchmen knew it too!!!
Legal Affairs
5 Detainees Ordered Released From Guantanamo
November 21, 2008 · A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Bush administration to release five detainees from the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The men have been held there for seven years on evidence the judge finds insufficient. The ruling is the first by a trial judge since the Supreme Court declared in June that the Guantanamo prisoners have the right to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts.
http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=4711397&startNum=16
