Chris Dodd for President

American Civil Liberties Union is right when it says that last week's Senate Judiciary Committee vote in favor of the restoration of habeas corpus protections "signals to the White House and the Republican minority in Congress that this is a real issue."

But that does not mean that renewal of the most basic of our Constitutional guarantees is just around the corner.
The frustrating fight to restore habeas corpus has reached an important milestone. Democrats appear to have signed on for the struggle. But Republicans, for the most part, remain wrong or silent.
That creates a calculus that must be understood by serious constitutionalists. This fight is about more than gaining partisan advantage or "sending a message." A fundamental of the republic is at stake. Thus, it is essential to recognize that, even though Democrats control the Congress, GOP control of the White House means that this constitutional restoration project must now focus attention and energy on those congressional Republicans who call themselves "strict constructionists." Only if the Senate votes overwhelmingly for the restoration of habeas corpus will there be any chance of forcing the hand of a president who has not distinguished himself as an enthusiast for the Bill of Rights. . . .

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2. End Torture, not Habeas Corpus
Presidential candidate Senator Chris Dodd has made defending our Constitution a focus of his campaign with the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, S. 576. The bill addresses the egregious wrongs of last year's Military Commissions Act. It would restore habeas corpus--the right of any person held in US custody to appear before a court to determine whether imprisonment is lawful. It would require that the United States live up to its Geneva Convention obligations on torture. And it would hold any government official accountable for torture and abuse--whether in an interrogation room or handing down orders from on high. Contact your representatives and ask them to co-sponsor Dodd's bill or the House version (HR 1415). You might also ask Dodd's fellow-presidential candidates--Senators Clinton and Obama – why they haven't signed on yet.

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America can't pretend to be a moral beacon for the world as long as it rounds people up, holds them indefinitely and refuses to charge them in court. Even Nazi war criminals were given trials by the Allies in 1946 - though British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said they should be "hunted down and shot."

But suspected terrorists in U.S. custody are now denied the right of habeas corpus, the celebrated "great writ of liberty" that would let them challenge their detentions in U.S. courts. It is inscribed in Article I of the U.S. Constitution and was recognized in the Magna Carta.

Congress removed that right, in the Military Commissions Act of 2006, for any "alien ... detained as an enemy combatant or ... awaiting such determination." In the same act, Congress set up military commissions to act as tribunals. But these commissions don't allow an "unlawful enemy combatant" (left largely undefined) to invoke the rights laid out in the Geneva Conventions.

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After detaining hundreds of terrorism suspects for more than five years at the Guantánamo Bay prison, the Bush administration still hasn't created a fair system for trying terror-war crimes. The first military commissions were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Now the second set of rules for terror-war trials, issued last month, fails -- again -- to abide by long-established U.S. and international legal standards.

Coercion, not torture

As Lord Peter Goldsmith, Britain's top lawyer, told the American Bar Association in Miami on Monday, ``The changes made are too little and too late. There remain fundamental problems with this system of detention.''

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Senate Democrats Tuesday unveiled proposed legislation to restore some legal rights to suspected terrorists, but distanced themselves from calls to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., filed a bill that would restore the right of detainees to challenge their detention, bar evidence gained through torture and allow detainees to invoke the Geneva Convention.

The filing comes four months after the GOP-led Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, described by supporters as a critical weapon against terrorism.

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