The Center for Constitutional Rights has eclipsed the ACLU in my eyes. CCR is always pushing the courts to limit the abuse of power of Mr. Bush (and don’t think Mr. Romney or Giuliani or Obama or Ms. Clinton won’t abuse this power as well).
What may be one of the most important civil rights cases of the past decade goes before the Supreme Court today. CCR (not Credence Clearwater Revival, you proles) is arguing the limits of detention:
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the cases of Al Odah v. U.S. and Boumediene v. Bush December 5th. These cases represent the third time the high court will hear a Guantánamo-related case. The previous two times, the court sided with CCR and the Guantánamo petitioners.
Al Odah v. United States [briefing]
On June 28, 2004, the Supreme Court held in Rasul v. Bush, that the nearly-600 men imprisoned by the U.S. government in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba had a right of access to the federal courts, via habeas corpus and otherwise, to challenge their detention and conditions of confinement. Subsequent to this decision, the habeas petitions were remanded to the district court for further proceedings. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision in Rasul, CCR and cooperating counsel filed 11 new habeas petitions in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of over 70 detainees. These cases eventually became the consolidated cases of Al Odah v. United Statesand Boumediene v. Bush, the leading cases determining the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Rasul, the rights of non-citizens to challenge the legality of their detention in an offshore U.S. military base, and the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
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