The War on Terrorism Stalled?

In a landmark decision on June 28, 2004, the US Supreme Court ruled that prisoners held by the US Military (in Guantanamo Bay and other places) should be granted access to the U.S. courts. As heard about the court’s ruling during my morning commute -- my eyes filled up with tears and I almost danced with joy. Amazing! The system of checks and balances devised by the founding fathers seemed to have worked. The Executive branch started the farce that civil liberties, especially when dealing with foreign nationals, can be sacrificed on the altar of US national security; the legislators shamelessly acquiesced to this farce by passing the Patriot Act. The human rights advocates were afraid that the judiciary might also be swayed by the blind patriotic fervor of these times, but hats off to the judicial branch! The court asserted itself. The seasoned ’babay’ (wise old men) constituting the Supreme Court bench refused to accept the logic that exceptional circumstances of today demand that the courts look the other way, letting the government deal with foreign prisoners in manners it deems necessary, for the sake of ’national security.’ What a victory of justice yesterday’s decision was! In that historical ruling the war of terrorism (originally started as the war on terrorism) was challenged, this country was stopped from transforming into a modern version of Nazi Germany.

This was the first, albeit the most important, of many legal fights to come. This battle decided the very basic question. How far does the jurisdiction of the US court go? The court saw the government eye to eye and asserted that its jurisdiction goes as far as the actions of the US Government go. The government should not expect the court to restrict its jurisdiction to US citizens held by the government.

At the crux of the debate was the issue of checks and balances — the vision of the founding fathers to save us from a government becoming totalitarian in character. To safeguard the philosophy that the judiciary should check the powers of the executive branch, the court decided that it has jurisdiction over anyone the government has control over — citizens, non-citizens alike.