Supreme Court Justice (nominated by Pres. Reagan 1981)
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld: state of war doesn't change rights
In the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi v. Donald Rumsfeld, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor writes for the majority that, "We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens."
She also writes: "It would turn our system of checks and balances on its head to suggest that a citizen could not make his way to court with a challenge to the factual basis for his detention by his government, simply because the
Executive opposes making available such a challenge. Absent suspension of the writ by Congress, a citizen detained as an enemy combatant is entitled to this process." Hamdi, on the other hand, apart from military interrogations and "screening processes,"
has received no process. However, O'Connor writes, "an interrogation by one's captor ... hardly constitutes a constitutionally adequate fact-finding before a neutral decisionmaker."
Source: www.CooperativeResearch.org, "Sandra Day O'Connor"
Jan 1, 2005
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