Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I don't particularly want to defend Obama on this issue, but I don't think you're right. Here is something I found in three seconds with Bing, looking for an explanation of the appropriations aspect: |
First off, Congress isn't the executive branch. They can't enforce many of the appropriations cited, as a constitutional matter. Show me a single case in which a court has upheld Congress's assertion of authority to control spending on that sort of micro level.
Second, the crap about not releasing detainees because they present a threat to the United States is not a valid reason to detain them. If we can't try them, or if we can't win because they are denied counsel, evidence is not made available to the defendants, etc., is just that. Crap. The fact that we made enemies of these detainees is not a legally valid reason for keeping them indefinitely without trial. That is the main problem I have with the Obama administration in this matter.
If, as we claim in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable, and men are endowed with these rights by the Creator, then the appropriations games are without a valid legal basis. We managed to justify the placement of Japanese-Americans in internment camps during WWII. That didn't make it lawful or right. It just made us thugs and racists. This is the same sort of disgrace. The Obama who ran for President knew that. The man in the White House appears to have forgotten.
