Don't know much about history--Obama 2nd edition
...The fact is that unlike the Nuremberg trials, the Gitmo detainees get to have the Supreme Court review their convictions by Military Tribunals.Obama, a former senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, cited "that principle of habeas corpus, that a state can't just hold you for any reason without charging you and without giving you any kind of due process -- that’s the essence of who we are. I mean, you remember during the Nuremberg trials, part of what made us different was even after these Nazis had performed atrocities that no one had ever seen before, we still gave them a day in court and that taught the entire world about who we are but also the basic principles of rule of law. Now the Supreme Court upheld that principle yesterday."
(Though Obama was clearly referring to the principle of giving criminals a day in court, it's worth pointing out the distinction here, that the Nuremberg trials did not give Nazi war criminals access to U.S. courts, but to a special international military tribunal created by the U.S., USSR, France and the U.K. Though Nuremberg currently is considered a model for international law, it's not as if Rudolph Hess had access to challenge his detention in U.S. federal court.)
"John McCain thinks the Supreme Court was wrong," Obama said. "I think the Supreme Court was right."
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The Supreme Court was clearly wrong in this case. Congress will try to work around the mess they have made. I still think that Congress should start by requiring that the Supreme Court have original jurisdiction of all detainees habeas petitions. Since it is obvious they need direct attention from the court there is no need to delay by going through the lower courts.
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