Does this mean that the United States is no longer a democracy?
Question by Hey Bud, let’s party!: Does this mean that the United States is no longer a democracy?
On 29 September, 2006, the U.S. Senate approved a bill which would suspend habeas corpus for anyone determined to be an “unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities or having supported hostilities against the United States” by a vote of 65-34.
This bill “removes important checks on the president by: failing to protect due process, eliminating habeas corpus for many detainees, undermining enforcement of the Geneva Conventions, and giving a “get out of jail free card” to officials who authorized or ordered illegal torture and abuse.” According ACLU Legislative Counsel, “nothing could be less American than a government that can indefinitely hold people in secret torture cells, take away their protections against horrific and cruel abuse, put them on trial based on evidence that they cannot see, sentence them to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and then slam shut the courthouse door for any habeas petition, but that’s exactly what Congress just approved.”
Best answer:
Answer by coragryph
No. It just means that Congress is violating the Constitution. Again.
The bill takes away the authority to interpret law from the judicial branch, and gives it to the executive branch, which is a violation of Article III and the Seperation of Powers doctrine.
The bill suspends habeas corpus, where there is no rebellion or invasion (the federal courts are open), in violation of Article I section 9. Which is also a violation of the 1st Amendment right to petition the govt for a redress of grievances (access to the courts).
Finally, the bill eliminates 6th Amendment protections, which the Supreme Court has said apply to anyone, and cannot be overridden. It’s amazing how many idiots keep trying to argue that the Constitution only applies to US citizens, without ever having read it, or the 200+ years of Supreme Court rulings interpreting it.
Bottom line, the bill directly violates at leat five clauses of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court has already confirmed these during earler attempts to do the same thing. While it also eliminates Geneva Convention protections, that is one one of the few things that Congress is allowed to do, because treaties have the same effect as federal laws, no more, no less.
But then again, we seem to be a country were neither the laws nor the Constitution apparently matter to most people. So, while this doesn’t make the US less of a democratic republic, it does mean we’ve abandoned the constitutional principles that the country was founded up.
One small step for Congress, one giant leap toward fascism.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!