A diary earlier today on DKos had John McCain stating:
that the Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo Bay detainees is "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."
The better part was:
"We are now going to have the courts flooded with so-called ... habeas corpus suits against the government, whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases," he said at a town hall meeting in New Jersey.
Ok, now let's dissect John McCain
Habeus Corpus is latin for "have the body" or, from Wikipedia:
/ˈheɪbiəs ˈkɔɹpəs/) (Latin: [We command] that you have the body)[1] is the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention of themselves or another person. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.
Also known as "The Great Writ," a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum is a summons with the force of a court order addressed to the custodian (such as a prison official) demanding that a prisoner be brought before the court, together with proof of authority, allowing the court to determine whether that custodian has lawful authority to hold that person, or, if not, the person should be released from custody. The prisoner, or another person on their behalf (for example, where the prisoner is being held incommunicado), may petition the court or an individual judge for a writ of habeas corpus.
The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus has long been celebrated as the most efficient safeguard of the liberty of the subject. Wikipedia Habeus Corpus
Please note - this writ is not about living conditions or reading material - it is about the right of the government to hold a person without any proof of the crime. In the old days (pre-2000) it was illegal to imprison a person past a certain number of days without any adjudication of the likelihood of a criminal act - holding a person without formal arrest.
John McCain has shown a completely neo-con understanding of the Constitution - close but no cigar here.
Habeus Corpus is under the 9th Amendment;
Cruel and Unusual treatment - the basis for all those nasty diet et al. claims is the 8th Amendment.
Oh, so close, thanks for playing - tell me, Johnny, what does Senator McCain get for playing this year "Let's get some electoral votes?"
Well, Senator McCain gets to see a democratic President, more than 55 Democratic Senators and a whole slew of Democratic Representatives. And his participation in "What don't you know about the US Constitution" has been so helpful.
Updated homunq, who started this topoc here
comented below that the right of habeas corpus shows up in the body of the Constitution:
Article 1, Section 9 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." Habeas corpus is a concept of law, in which a person may not be held by the government without a valid reason for being held. A writ of habeas corpus can be issued by a court upon a government agency (such as a police force or the military). Such a writ compels the agency to produce the individual to the court, and to convince the court that the person is being reasonably held. The suspension of habeas corpus allows an agency to hold a person without a charge. Suspension of habeas corpus is often equated with martial law.
US Consitution Online
Makes it even worse but I was working around the neo-con conflation of the 8th Amendment coddling and the 9th Amendment habeas.