Working for the MCA

As the Democrats begin to get their feet under them and look to challenge the suspension of habeas corpus written into the Military Commissions Act, it is instructive to look at the real life consequences of this horrible law. Consider the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, as told by Glenn Greenwald:

In December, 2001 he was detained as a "material witness" to suspected acts of terrorism and ultimately charged with various terrorism-related offenses, mostly relating to false statements the FBI claimed he made as part of its 9/11 investigation. Al-Marri vehemently denied the charges, and after lengthy pre-trial proceedings, his trial on those charges was scheduled to begin on July 21, 2003.

But his trial never took place, because in June, 2003 -- one month before the scheduled trial -- President Bush declared him to be an "enemy combatant." As a result, the Justice Department told the court it wanted to turn him over to the U.S. military, and thus asked the court to dismiss the criminal charges against him, and the court did so (the dismissal was "with prejudice," meaning he can't be tried ever again on those charges). Thus, right before his trial, the Bush administration simply removed Al-Marri from the jurisdiction of the judicial system -- based solely on the unilateral order of the President -- and thus prevented him from contesting the charges against him.

The fact that this particular outrage was not enacted unilaterally by the administration under the cover of some bizarre John Yoo interpretation of the unitary executive, but was enacted as law, passed by Congress, and of course signed by the President, this piece of legislation is may be the most egregious example of the failures of our combined leadership since 2000. The Democrats should unflinchingly reverse this affront to our Constitution.