Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 3, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A15 Winnipeg free press focus saturday july 3, 2004. . Supreme court rulings White House brought Back to Earth Bush a Power Over inmates in War on terror reined in the Bush administration claimed that in the War on terror it must be allowed to remain above the Law. By Oona a. Hathaway t he . Supreme court took a courageous and Correct step Mon Day. In three separate opinions that sent a single powerful message it reined in the Bush administrations claims of exclusive Power Over prisoners captured in the War on terror. The administration had said that it and Only it could decide if and when Legal protections applied to such prisoners. The supreme court disagreed reaffirming the fundamental principle that the courts have the Power to say when the president has gone too far. In doing so the court has helped to restore the Basic governmental account ability that is essential to the Protection of human rights both in the United states and abroad. Prisoners at first glance those watching the court might presume that the prisoners who filed suit lost their cases because the court did not decide whether those prison ers could continue to be detained or must go free. But what was at stake in these cases was much More than the Fate of the few prisoners who filed them. At Issue Here was the Power of the executive Branch unilaterally to seize and indefinitely imprison those it designates enemy As with the famous Marbury v. Madison decision in 1803 that affirmed the right of the court to be the final arbiter of the Constitution mondays decisions Are Vic tories not because of their immediate effects on the Fate of the parties to the Case but because of the principle of court review that they uphold. In the face of presidential opposition and claims of executive privilege the court has once again emphatically declared its Power to say what the Law this declaration was not just valuable but essential for in each of the cases the White House made unprecedented assertions of executive privilege. Two of the cases Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Padilla v. Rumsfeld involve american citizens ? one captured in Afghanistan where he was suspected of fighting on behalf of the Taliban and the other caught in Chicago and suspected of involvement in a plot to True North Strong and free so we Are still Here. Wars Are being fought in far off lands where democracy is still unheard of Here the Sun shines. The Birds sing. It is finally summer. We can com Plain of the heat and swat bugs. Nothing has changed. Signs come Down. Books Are put away school is Over. We Are canadians. We have survived an election. Not one shot was fired. Not one life was lost. All is Well. So let us never forget we Are indeed the True North Strong and Roxie Greene Winnipeg Don to change Marathon course i read with interest the article Road blocks ahead for downtown Marathon Page c1, june 29 concerning the pro posed change of venue of the Marathon to the its Centre. This idea seems particularly ill conceived. First moving any part of the race indoors completely misses the Point most Marathon runners choose to run outside and go to great lengths to continue to do so throughout the year. The thrill ? of seeing myself on the Jum Boron As i Cross the finish line is Sim ply not compensation enough for running any part of the race indoors. Second change for the Sake of change is Seldom a Good idea and is not rationale enough for the disruption and chaos that would surely ensue with any race through the downtown area. Third surely this decision must be made in consultation with runners. I am concerned that a change of this magnitude May be done without due consultation with the marathons Actu Al constituents. Marathon executive director Shirley Lumb urges us to chill and posits that its nothing to get into a panic she asks the Public to have Faith that such decisions take a Long time. Such words however Are not completely reassuring. If indeed there Are any hidden Agen Das supporting a move to the its Cen tre i wish to have my dissenting vote tallied now before this proposal becomes entrenched. I would also Point out that every run Ner i have spoken to is opposed to a move to the its Centre. If proof of a Lack of support from the running Community is required we need Only be consulted. Bill Diehl Jones Winnipeg its not ethics its politics the free press says that although Iran shows Strong signs of developing a nuclear weapons program that they Are too Strong to be invaded Iran a threat grows set off a dirty bomb in the United states. Unilaterally labelled enemy combat ants by the Bush administration Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla Are being held indefinitely at a naval Brig in Charleston . They have never received any formal charges or any Legal proceedings. The remaining two cases which were consolidated in a single court opinion Fol Lowed a similar pattern. In Rasul v. Bush and Odah v. United states the administration claimed that it could indefinitely detain at Guantanamo Bay any foreign nationals captured abroad in connection with the War on terror. Treatment the administration again claimed that it was under no obligation to charge the prisoners or to provide them with any Legal process and it refused to allow Domestic courts to review its treatment of prisoners on the base declaring it outside their jurisdiction. The court monday ensured that hence Forth the american government would not be unaccountable for its actions unequivocally holding that . Courts have the necessary Power to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay. The courts Resolution of the Hamdi and Padilla cases was less unequivocal but also firm in its Effort to wrest Power Back from the executive what was at Branch. The fractured decision in Hamdi ? stake in these no opinion won a cases was majority of the justices ? is far from an much More unqualified Victory than the Fate for the plaintiff. Yet of the few All the justices rejected the claim that the prisoners who prisoner in question filed them. Could remain imprisoned at the unchecked discretion of the executive Branch. In Padilla the court agreed with the administration that the Case was initially filed in the wrong Federal appeals court and hence ordered the Case dismissed. Though a grave disappointment to those who View the detention As fundamentally wrong including four dissenting justices in the Case itself the Case can ? and undoubtedly will ? proceed in the Correct this is interesting. The United states invaded Iraq with a moral imperative. It believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and it had a moral obligation to Stop him from developing or using them. If they ? and their apologists ? actually believe that then the . Is under a similar obligation to invade Iran and North Korea to Stop similar weapons programs from proceeding. Incidentally the same logic applies to removing dictators from Power the fall Back moral position adopted by the . Government. Morality is about behaviour about How we should behave when faced with a set of circumstances. The last time i checked morality was not influenced by the difficulty of carrying out the behaviour. Either something is morally wrong or it is not. If it is morally wrong then one must behave accordingly. So the moral High Road adopted by the . And its supporters is shown to be conditional ? if they can invade a nation doonesbury with minimal losses to themselves they will. This is not ethics ? it is politics. The . Invasion of Iraq was not motivated by morality but by some other Rea sons. I Don t pretend to know what those reasons were and refuse to speculate on what they May be. The free press has been an apologist for the . Actions in Iraq since before the Onset. Ian Toal Winnipeg Manitoba has healthy democracy whenever polls Are taken across the country the Prairies Are very often lumped together As if they have some thing in common. The fact that we All have Strong Agri cultural economies does not mean we Are All the same. Winnipeg is not Calgary. Court where the courts assertion of Power to reign in the executive will Likely play an important role. All this Means that whether the prison ers will be released or not ? and on what terms ? will be decided in time by the Federal courts. While not the Victory some had hoped it is a significant one the exact Resolution of these cases is less important than the fact that the courts have the Power to resolve them. Laws designed to protect human rights Are not self enforcing. Nor can those who might Benefit from skirting them be trusted to enforce them alone. The Bush administration claimed that in the War on terror it must be allowed to remain above the Law. The supreme court has rightly brought the White House Back to Earth. Oona a. Hathaway is associate professor of Law at Yale Law school. She is a contributor to the forthcoming volume torture a col Lection and is working on a Book about the Promise and limits of International Law. ? new Day letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from readers. They must include the authors name address and Telephone number. Letters May be edited. Letters to the editor 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Fax 697-7412. Email i do not appreciate being lumped in with Saskatchewan and Alberta in terms of politics. Those two provinces Are overwhelmingly conservative in their voting Pat terns at least federally. Manitoba is a very Good example of political diversity. We elected three liberals four nip and seven conservatives. Even with two of the conservative wins in Kildonan St. Paul and Charleswood St. James they were close enough to have also become lib eral. If they want to use the Prairie Label then give it to Alberta and Saskatchewan. Put them together not Manitoba. We should be proud of our political diversity As we never really swing or gravitate to one party in Masse. A healthy democracy is alive and Well in Manitoba. David Sauer Winnipeg by Garry Trudeau ;