For those curious, here's the text and the vote for the Military Commissions Act.Word comes down that tomorrow Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) are going to introduce a bill to radically reform the constitutionally-challenged system of terrorism detainee prosecutions. Known as the Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act, the bill, according to Dodd, would reintroduce habeas corpus protections to Guantanamo Bay detainees; create an independent court review to military commission rulings; and bar information obtained through "coercion" (read: torture); among other provisions.
Whether Dodd and Menendez's legal fix will pass is unclear. It essentially reverses the Bush administration's favored Military Commissions Act of last year, which stripped habeas rights from terrorism detainees -- and passed the Senate with 65 votes.
The bill would almost certainly face a veto from the White House. But with civil liberties lawyers gearing up for a litany of legal challenges to the MCA's constitutionality, Dodd and Menendez might have an opening.
A few questions (and I'm channeling the trolls so that they don't have to do a "spit take" with their morning coffee):
- Doesn't Christopher Dodd and the rest of the Democrat Party see we're at war?
- Does they hate George Bush so much that they'll do anything to undermine him, even if it means helping the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11?
- Did Dodd and the Democrat Party forget the lessons 9/11?
- Why does Christopher Dodd and the Democrat Party hate America?
On the other, who cares? If it will restore the Constitution to something recognizable, then I'm all for it.
