Jon Kyl: “This letter presents the views of the Department of Justice on S. 185, the ``Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007,'' as…”

“This letter presents the views of the Department of Justice on S. 185, the ``Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007,'' as introduced in the U.S. Senate. If enacted, S. 185 would remove the habeas corpus restrictions included in the ``Military Commissions Act of 2006.'' After a full and open debate, a bipartisan majority of Congress passed the MCA just last fall. The MCA's restrictions on habeas corpus codified important and constitutional limits on captured enemies' access to our courts. The DC Circuit upheld MCA's habeas restrictions in--the name of the case is Boumediene v. Bush--I will omit the citation--decided in 2007. The provision of S. 185 that seeks to remove these important limits ignores their history and their role in protecting our Nation's security. As the Supreme Court recognized in Johnson v. Eisentrager, a 1950 case, the extension of habeas corpus to alien combatants captured abroad ``would hamper the war effort and bring aid and comfort to the enemy,'' and the Constitution requires no such thing.”