Arlen Specter: “Substantively, my amendment would retain the constitutional right of habeas corpus for people detained at Guantanamo.…”

“Substantively, my amendment would retain the constitutional right of habeas corpus for people detained at Guantanamo. The bill before the Senate strips the Federal district court of jurisdiction to hear these cases. The right of habeas corpus was established in the Magna Carta in 1215 when, in England, there was action taken against King John to establish a procedure to prevent illegal detention. What the bill seeks to do is to set back basic rights by some 900 years. This amendment would strike that provision and make certain that the constitutional right and the statutory right--but fundamentally the constitutional right of habeas corpus--is maintained. The core provision is contained in article I, section 9, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states: The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. We do not have either rebellion or invasion, so it is a little hard for me to see, as a basic principle of constitutional law, how the Congress can suspend the writ of habeas corpus in the face of that flat language. When you have an issue of constitutionality, how can constitutionality be determined and interpreted except in the Court?”