Letter: Detainee bill would sabotage Constitution

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006 | 7:45 a.m.

As the Sun's Sept. 30 story reports, the detainee bill deprives those charged under it with the right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution against arbitrary arrest, known as habeas corpus. In fact, this law not only explicitly violates the Constitution by depriving individuals of the right of habeas corpus, it also prohibits American courts from hearing any appeal by someone arrested under this law.

Republican supporters of the bill argue that the law, as Rep. Jim Gibbons puts it, ensures "detainee rights" of those arrested under its provisions; other Republicans in Congress, not quoted in the article, argue that it does not apply to U.S. citizens. But this makes no sense whatsoever. Without the right of habeas corpus - which enables each individual the right to appeal to a judge on whether the government has demonstrated a legal basis for the arrest - then no one, not even a U.S. citizen, could ever be protected from arbitrary arrest or even torture at the hands of the government.

If the government were to designate a U.S. citizen for detention under this law (perhaps because it believed that American had "materially supported" a "terrorist" enterprise unwittingly through what were intended as charitable donations, or perhaps simply by mistake) that citizen, once arrested, would have no right to defend himself or herself from permanent arrest, even torture - because that citizen would have no opportunity to demonstrate to a judge that he or she is a citizen and thus exempt from the law. And no judge could hear such a plea, under this law.

Sen. John Ensign says this bill will only apply to "ruthless enemies" and not to "common criminals." But without the basic right of habeas corpus, how would we ever know whether the person arrested is in fact a terrorist - or had even run a stop sign? There would be no basis for the person arrested to seek his or her day in court.

In short, once the government arrests an individual under this law, without habeas corpus, the government will no longer be required to charge, to try or to free that individual - ever.

Gregory S. Brown, Las Vegas