Habeas Corpus Evaporating

Aziz Huq

May 14, 2007

Aziz Huq directs the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice. He is co-author of Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in Times of Terror, and recipient of a 2006 Carnegie Scholars Fellowship.

Six months after Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 with its eyes firmly on the polls, there have been many promises and proposals from legislators about how to remedy the damage done to civil liberties by that law—but little action. Despite the powerful advocacy of former military officials, religious figures, and law enforcement officials, Congress has as of yet failed to fix a single one of the MCA’s many flaws.

As efforts to rectify the MCA’s most egregious incursions of America’s separation of powers hang in the balance, it is worth recalling how much is at stake today—and how badly things could go wrong if enacted legislation doesn’t achieve real reform.