Litigation

For Detainees, Indefinite Detention System Created

By Peter Hardin

In addition to re-starting military trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, President Obama has formally set up a system of indefinite detention for prisoners held there.

The president signed Monday an executive order recognizing that some detainees at the military prison will remain there over many years.

It permits them a chance to argue successfully they do not pose a danger and should be freed, according to a Washington Post article.

“I commend the Obama Administration for issuing this Executive Order,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “The bottom line is that it affirms the Bush Administration policy that our government has the right to detain dangerous terrorists until the cessation of hostilities.”

A Wall Street Journal editorial took a similar tack. It was entitled, “Obama Ratifies Bush: The Administration embraces military tribunals at Gitmo.” The editorial began, “No one has done more to revive the reputation of Bush-era antiterror policies than the Obama Administration.”

A different reaction came from Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It is virtually impossible to imagine how one closes Guantanamo in light of this executive order,” Romero said. “In a little over two years, the Obama administration has done a complete about-face.”

In a statement, the ACLU said the executive order “institutionalizes the ongoing indefinite detention of detainees in U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay.”

At SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston has written an article examining Obama’s “new claim to detention power.” Denniston observed, “The detention power, however, may be checked by the civilian courts as they decide habeas challenges to continued detention by those at Guantanamo Bay, the President conceded.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).