Constitutional Law

News item on the Supreme Court’s decision against the Bush Administration in its dealings with legal proceedings for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay:

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity seemed to hint at the potential political implications in Congress. “Members of both parities will have to decide whether terrorists who cherish the killing of innocents deserve the same protections as our men and women who wear the uniform.”

It seems to me that our men and women who wear the uniform would be more interested in knowing whether or not America’s justice system would be the same for all, no matter what their crimes are. That is what they are fighting for, as they swore to “defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.” That Constitution does not say that liberties and the right to a fair trial applies only at certain times and under certain conditions, but rather all the time, no matter what the conditions. That’s what makes our country great and powerful. They know that no president and no administration has the right to toss those guarantees of a full and fair trial by jury out the window when they so desire, or when it seems to be politically correct. Without those guarantees we are no better than the killers we are fighting.