Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001? I was working as a Personal Care Provider in a Senior Home at Newport, NJ. Do you remember the feeling you felt when you saw the planes crashing on the Twin Towers in New York? I remember feeling powerless. I wanted to do something to help out the people trapped in those towers. It was a horrible feeling not to be able to help them. Right after that, President Bush declared the War on Terror and many of our troop members were sent overseas to defend our country and to try to catch those involved on this act of terror. Many people were detained and sent to Guantanamo bay. They were accused of being enemy combatants. Some of them were guilty, some of them were not. I personally do not care for those are guilty, guilty people should pay for what they do. People make choices and they are consequences for those choices. How about those who are innocents? How about those who were victims of this hatred towards those who really hurt our country and its citizens? Is it fair for them to be paying for something they didn’t do? If the people held in Guantanamo bay are not enemy combatants, would Habeas Corpus apply to them? If Habeas Corpus could be applied to them, how easy would be for them to be released? In this paper, I will be giving a brief history of the Habeas Corpus including its purpose and its application to the present; along with that, I will be discussing about the mode of proceedings at Guantanamo bay, how difficult it is for an innocent person to prove their innocence and how easy could be for any American citizens to be caught in the same situation without a trial. Habeas Corpus means in Latin “you have a body”, it is a writ used to take a prisoner before the court to determine if the person’s imprisonment is lawful. In the United States, the federal courts can use the
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001? I was working as a Personal Care Provider in a Senior Home at Newport, NJ. Do you remember the feeling you felt when you saw the planes crashing on the Twin Towers in New York? I remember feeling powerless. I wanted to do something to help out the people trapped in those towers. It was a horrible feeling not to be able to help them. Right after that, President Bush declared the War on Terror and many of our troop members were sent overseas to defend our country and to try to catch those involved on this act of terror. Many people were detained and sent to Guantanamo bay. They were accused of being enemy combatants. Some of them were guilty, some of them were not. I personally do not care for those are guilty, guilty people should pay for what they do. People make choices and they are consequences for those choices. How about those who are innocents? How about those who were victims of this hatred towards those who really hurt our country and its citizens? Is it fair for them to be paying for something they didn’t do? If the people held in Guantanamo bay are not enemy combatants, would Habeas Corpus apply to them? If Habeas Corpus could be applied to them, how easy would be for them to be released? In this paper, I will be giving a brief history of the Habeas Corpus including its purpose and its application to the present; along with that, I will be discussing about the mode of proceedings at Guantanamo bay, how difficult it is for an innocent person to prove their innocence and how easy could be for any American citizens to be caught in the same situation without a trial. Habeas Corpus means in Latin “you have a body”, it is a writ used to take a prisoner before the court to determine if the person’s imprisonment is lawful. In the United States, the federal courts can use the
References: Americans Civil Liberties Union. (2011, December 31). Retrieved from ACLU: http://www.aclu.org Chemerinsky, E. (1987). Case Western Reserve Law Review. Thinking about Habeas Corpus, 748-792. Clark, J. (2007, September 7). How stuff works. Retrieved from How stuff works: http://www.howstuffworks.com CleanTV (Director). (2010). The Day Habeas Corpus Died [Motion Picture]. Dueholm, J. A. (2008, Summer). Lincoln 's Suspention of the Writ of Habeas Corpus: An Historical and Constitutional Analysis. Retrieved from Journal of The Lincoln Association: http://quod.lib.umich.edu Foley, B. J. (2007). GUANTANAMO AND BEYOND: DANGERS OF RIGGING THE RULES. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 1009-1069. Levin-Waldman, O. M. (2012). American Government. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. LII. (2010, August 19). Cornell University Law School. Retrieved from Legal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/habeas_corpus Longley, R. (n.d.). US Government Info. Retrieved from About: usgovinfo.about.com