Tuesday, January 20, 2004



Defending American values

A group of US military lawyers have filed a brief in the Supreme Court's review of whether the Guantanamo detainees can access the US court system, equating the US administration's position with that of King George III:

The colonists who wrote our Declaration of Independence penned, among their charges against King George, that "[h]e has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"; "depriv[ed] us, in many Cases, of the benefits of trial by jury"; "made Judges dependent on his Will alone"; and "transport[ed] us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences."

Those charges describe the United States' legal position in this case.

It's good to see them standing up for America's founding values when the President and administration won't. They're doing their job extraordinarily well - but I wonder whether they'll get to keep it?

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