Detainees’ legal rights narrowed
on Dec 22, 2005 at 4:06 pm
The final congressional measure narrowing the legal rights of foreign nationals detained in the war on terrorism is a complex set of interrelated provisions. The best explanation so far available of the changes made in recent days is contained in a statement made on the Senate floor Thursday by Senator Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, one of the architects of the so-called “Graham-Levin amendment.” (The detainee provisions are in the National Defense Authorization Act, passed in final form by the Senate late Wednesday, and by the House this past Monday. President Bush is expected to sign the measure into law.)
Levin’s full statement about the final bill can be found here. This is a lengthy document; scroll down to the section that begins with “Detainee Treatment.” This is not the actual language of the compromise result, but the senator does recount quite clearly how changes were made in the Senate-House Conference Committee from the original Graham amendment and from the later Senate-approved Graham-Levin version.
Among other comments, Levin suggests that the final version would not deprive the Supreme Court of a chance to go ahead with its review of the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case (docket 05-184), testing the constitutionality of the war crimes tribunals set up at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It may also not undercut the existing D.C. Circuit case on the rights, if any, that detainees have to challenge continued imprisonment at Guantanamo.
