NOW THAT ONLY 28% OF AMERICANS APPROVE OF BUSH, WILL CONGRESS FEEL IT'S SAFE TO RE-INSTITUTE HABEAS CORPUS?

Of all the outrages perpetrated on our nation by the Bush Regime, I don't think anything got me so worked up as their attack on habeas corpus. This is one of the most basic rights that distinguishes Americans for people who live at the mercy of full-fledged-- instead of half-assed-- dictators. I was so angry when otherwise ideal then-Rep. Sherrod Brown-- in what looked like what might be a tight race against rubber stamp wingnut Senator Mike Dewine-- voted for Bush's up-with-torture/down-with-habeas-corpus bill, that I kicked Brown off Blue America's fundraising page. Previously he was probably my favorite candidate.

Although I haven't found any coverage of this in either the New York Times or Washington Post-- at least not yet-- this morning stalwart progressive Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and sometimes reactionary Jane Harman (D-CA) joined forces to introduce legislation in the House to restore our right to habeas corpus in America, which will, once again, allow every American citizen to challenge the legality of his or her arrest and detention in an open court of law. The top Democrat and top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced a similar bill in the Senate in January.

Ralph Neas, president of People For the America Way worked extremely hard to get Congress to revisit the Bush Regime's outrageous Military Commissions Act of 2006, the bill allowing torture and chipping away at Habeas Corpus. Today Neas, like all Americans who care for constitutional governance (at least those who somehow found out about this), was overjoyed:

Shortly before last year’s congressional elections, many members of Congress made the poor decision to vote for legislation that deprived U.S. detainees of habeas corpus relief. That bill was passed in a politically charged, pre-election environment providing little opportunity for thorough, thoughtful debate. The Great Writ of Habeas Corpus should not permanently fall prey to the shortsighted and cynical politics that characterized the 109th Congress. The 109th Congress played politics with a time-honored constitutional protection and the result has weakened our country. Members now have the opportunity to revisit the issue and overturn one of the more odious strikes at our constitutional core in our nation’s history.

While last year’s legislation put us on a slippery slope toward ever-greater erosion of liberty, Representatives Nadler and Harman offer us hope for a halt to that slide with their introduction of the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007. Habeas corpus has been a bulwark against tyranny in this country for more than 200 years. It prevents the government from abusing its power and imprisoning people for no reason, and it gives all of us the guarantee that if we are detained, we have the right to challenge the legality of the detention. This is America-- the government should not have the power to make people disappear into legal black holes with no way to prove their innocence. While the judiciary could ultimately find last year’s legislation to be unconstitutional, the best approach is to undo legislative mistakes through the legislative process. The Nadler-Harman bill, along with companion legislation introduced in January by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.)-- provides this Congress with the opportunity to restore a historic constitutional right. We urge members of Congress to pass this important legislation and the President to sign it into law.