Comments on: How a Jihadist Curtailed a President’s Authority http://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/21/how-a-jihadist-curtailed-a-president%e2%80%99s-authority/ Res ipsa loquitur ("The thing itself speaks") Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:28:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: rafflaw http://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/21/how-a-jihadist-curtailed-a-president%e2%80%99s-authority/#comment-21583 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:22:30 +0000 http://jonathanturley.wordpress.com/?p=3460#comment-21583 It would be a more amazing story if the Bush Administration had actually retried Hamdan in a consitutionally sound military court. At least the court gave a slap to Bush when they gave him the 5 1/2 sentence. The next question is whether they will release him at the end of the 6 months? If they do not release him, doesn’t that prove that the military commissons are a farce?

]]> By: Jill http://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/21/how-a-jihadist-curtailed-a-president%e2%80%99s-authority/#comment-21517 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:20:13 +0000 http://jonathanturley.wordpress.com/?p=3460#comment-21517 Buzz79,

I took the headline to mean the events surrounding/including Hamdan (because he had to trust lawyers in an alien system to come through for his rights), so it didn’t personally trouble me. However, I do see how it could be read a different way as you explain above. It was people who believed in and fought for our Constitution who curtailed Bush’s power.

]]> By: Buzz79 http://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/21/how-a-jihadist-curtailed-a-president%e2%80%99s-authority/#comment-21509 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:07:47 +0000 http://jonathanturley.wordpress.com/?p=3460#comment-21509 Didn’t you find the headline on the review troubling? It wasn’t Hamdan the jihadist who curtailed Bush’s power, it was the Constitution and the courts.

]]> By: Jill http://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/21/how-a-jihadist-curtailed-a-president%e2%80%99s-authority/#comment-21508 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:01:07 +0000 http://jonathanturley.wordpress.com/?p=3460#comment-21508 I will read this book. Another Gitmo detainee. Mr. al-Ghizzawi’s lawyer is described in Ron Suskind’s book, “The Way of the World”. Candace Gorman, his attorney says, “In the U.S., we have rights…If a company or the government breaks those laws…I represent them…And I think your rights are being denied, because you have the right to at least know why you’re being held.” Suskind describes Ms. Gorman’s struggle with whether she’s representing a terrorist and how that is beside the point; “This is about due prcess, about letting the law do its work.”

Mr. Swift and many others in the JAG took their oath to our Constitution seriously, at cost to themselves. They have been “clear thinkers” at a time when that quality was in short supply. The civilian lawyers who represent detainees have kept faith with our Constitution as well. This is not an easy thing to do and I am grateful there are people with that type of stubborn courage.

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