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Constitution In Force In Extraordinary Times

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A pusillanimous court never imparts Justice.

To serve justice calls for unyielding resolve to counter power or fear, and such has been the happy occurrence we comment today.

The US Supreme Court ruled this week that foreign terrorism suspects held in Guantánamo do have constitutional rights to challenge their detention in the United States.

To imprison people for 6 years without a hearing, while being subjected to horrendous torture and degrading acts sounds typical of a totalitarian regime.   The US Supreme Court ruling, the third in this same vein evidences the abuses on the part of the Bush administration intent on desecrating the tenets of freedom and democracy upon which this nation is founded.

Not by coincidence, since 9/11 a number of decrees, laws and regulations have been meticulously crafted to place any person presumed to fall under the "terrorist suspects" and "immigrants" categories off-limits to the protections of the Constitution and the oversight of the judiciary.

To shoot first and ask questions later, to presume guilty until proven otherwise are today's mantra in this absurd quest against what "honorable" Congressmen (all of them the offspring of immigrants) have termed immigration the "plague and scourge of this nation".

Countering one of the systematically repeated justifications of this administration Justice Kennedy asserted: "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times".   Neither liberal nor conservative Justice Kennedy simply tipped the scale in favor of sobriety.

Sobriety though is exactly what still lacks in the daily onslaught on immigration.  By means of directives, city ordinances and laws, the Constitution is still being mocked and there is an urgent need to continue challenging an inhumane and unconstitutional frame that outlaws hiring, renting, educating, or even hosting immigrants. 

Clearly it is reminiscent of Nazis and their final solution to the Jewish problem.   Actually, short of cremating we even fashion immigration detention centers for illegal immigrants and their children.

Does this sound extravagant?  Just 3 weeks ago during a mock hurricane evacuation in Rio Grande Valley Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE practiced how to prescreen evacuees for citizenship.  Dan Doty a Border Patrol spokesperson claimed "Anyone who is not a citizen or is not a legal resident will be held in specially designed areas in the Valley that are made to withstand hurricanes" quoted The Rio Grande Guardian.   Pretty consistent with what happened with hurricane Katrina, when the poor, the black and the infirm were left marooned in New Orleans.

While we salute Justice Kennedy for his assertion that "liberty and security can be reconciled", we await in earnest for the time when the cathartic mob beguiled by opportunists comes to its senses and stops this cowardly persecution.
 

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