Jeff Bingaman: “let me speak very briefly. I wanted to clarify a couple of points. The Senator from South Carolina has indicated that…”

“let me speak very briefly. I wanted to clarify a couple of points. The Senator from South Carolina has indicated that instead of people having a right to challenge the legality of their detention through a writ of habeas corpus, we are going to give them the right to challenge the legality of their detention in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That is not what his amendment says. His amendment says the Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia shall have a limited scope of review. The jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on any claims with respect to an alien under this paragraph shall be limited to consideration of whether the determination of the combatant status review tribunal regarding such alien was consistent with such procedures and standards as specified by the Secretary of Defense. The very limited scope of review that he would provide to the court of appeals would just say you can look to see whether they, in fact, followed their own procedures--the procedures set out by the Secretary of Defense--not whether the status, or whether the detention of that individual is legal. That is the question that the writ of habeas corpus gets to--a question of whether, in fact, a person is being legally held by the government.…”