The Defense Authorization Act, which contains the revisions to the newly reconstituted military commissions, passed the House yesterday afternoon. As I wrote yesterday, the revisions lack the "voluntariness" clause that the administration's own Office of Legal Counsel reportedly said was necessary to make the commissions constitutional.
Between the expected Patriot Act reauthorization and Joe Lieberman's attempt to pass the White House supported legislation that would legalize the suppression of torture photos, civil liberties are taking a beating. The ACLU released a statement praising what revisions are in the bill but calling the commissions illegitimate by nature. From Chris Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel:
While this bill contains substantial improvements to the current military commissions, the system remains fatally flawed and contrary to basic principles of American justice. While the bill takes positive steps by restricting coerced and hearsay evidence and providing greater defense counsel resources, it still falls short of providing the due process required by the Constitution. The military commissions were created to circumvent the Constitution and result in quick convictions, not to achieve real justice.
It's astonishing what the White House has been able to get away with in the past few days -- with the 24-7 focus on health care laying down cover fire, the Obama administration has been able to quietly get everything it wants in terms of reauthorizing powers it had previously that Obama had promised to curtail or giving itself new authority that -- at the very least -- violates the spirit of Obama's inaugural proclamation that "we reject as false the choice between our safety and ideals." Virtually the only spot of good news on the civil-liberties front in the past few days is that Congress has agreed to allow the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to American soil for prosecution.
-- A. Serwer
