NYT Editorial: American Liberty at the Precipice

Thursday 22 February 2007

In another low moment for American justice, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that detainees held at the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, do not have the right to be heard in court. The ruling relied on a shameful law that President Bush stampeded through Congress last fall that gives dangerously short shrift to the Constitution.

The right of prisoners to challenge their confinement - habeas corpus - is enshrined in the Constitution and is central to American liberty. Congress and the Supreme Court should act quickly and forcefully to undo the grievous damage that last fall's law - and this week's ruling - have done to this basic freedom.