Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, April 02, 2009 5:01:23 PM
How ridiculous has the judicial intrusion on military action become? A
federal judge ruled today that terrorists captured on foreign
battlefields and held by the military should have access to American courts. Not only does that arrogantly assume American sovereignty over Afghanistan, but it also violates the Geneva Convention
This is, simply put, a war by the judiciary on American conduct of
war. The Constitution gives the judiciary no role whatsoever in the
prosecution of war or in handling the prisoners our military captures.
War powers are explicitly split between the executive and legislative
branches. The practical reading of this order is that the federal
courts have some sort of jurisdiction over military activity in
Afghanistan, which proceeds from the equally fallacious rulings about
Gitmo.
Not only does this violate the separation of powers in the Constitution, it actually violates the Geneva Convention. Article 84 states clearly that prisoners of any stripe shall not get tried in civil courts
What does this order do? It interferes with military operations by
treating captured prisoners as having Constitutional guarantees
intended for the maintenance of civil order. Prisoners now will get
the right to habeas corpus, turning soldiers into police officers and
key intelligence into discovery material. No one can fight a war with
a Miranda warning in their back pocket, nor should they.
The net effect of this will be to push the military into killing its
targets rather than capturing them, or to push renditions instead.
Congress needs to step in and stop this ridiculous overreach by the
federal judiciary.
Buzz up