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THE SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS YR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BE DETAINED WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE
ITEM: The Supreme Court rules in Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd that former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot be held responsible for the wrongful arrest and detention of US citizen Abdullah al-Kidd under the material witness law.
That’s the same material witness law that allows law enforcement to detain a witness whose testimony prosecutors believe is material at a criminal trial if it believes that witness won't testify voluntarily – and which Ashcroft retooled to allow the government to arrest and detain individuals for whom they lacked probable cause to charge with a crime, which subsequently allowed the DOJ to detain Muslims under the pretext of being “material witnesses”, when the real objective (allegedly) was to detain Muslims who may or may not know anyone in al Qaeda.
“Preventative detention”, it’s called. And it resulted in Al-Kidd being arrested, detained under abusive conditions, and then having his movements and freedoms severely restricted for 16 months despite no evidence that he had done anything wrong. None of which matters, since Al-Kidd’s legal argument was that Ashscroft intentionally misused the law. The Supremes ruled 8-0 that legally it didn’t matter what Ashcroft’s intentions were.
Anyway, that’s not Ashcroft’s problem anymore. Which means it’s not really anyone’s problem now – except people like Al-Kidd, but he’s Muslim, and yr not, so why worry? Only people you don’t know get their rights violated, and nobody gets to be held responsible.
Everyone wins.
Especially Ashcroft, who has just landed a new job as an “independent director” of private military firm Xe Services (formerly known as Blackwater), where he will head Xe’s new “subcommittee on governance,” which is designed to “maximize governance, compliance and accountability” and “promote the highest degrees of ethics and professionalism within the private-security industry.”
And you thought Republicans had no sense of humor.
No one’s to blame,
This is dF
That’s the same material witness law that allows law enforcement to detain a witness whose testimony prosecutors believe is material at a criminal trial if it believes that witness won't testify voluntarily – and which Ashcroft retooled to allow the government to arrest and detain individuals for whom they lacked probable cause to charge with a crime, which subsequently allowed the DOJ to detain Muslims under the pretext of being “material witnesses”, when the real objective (allegedly) was to detain Muslims who may or may not know anyone in al Qaeda.
“Preventative detention”, it’s called. And it resulted in Al-Kidd being arrested, detained under abusive conditions, and then having his movements and freedoms severely restricted for 16 months despite no evidence that he had done anything wrong. None of which matters, since Al-Kidd’s legal argument was that Ashscroft intentionally misused the law. The Supremes ruled 8-0 that legally it didn’t matter what Ashcroft’s intentions were.
Anyway, that’s not Ashcroft’s problem anymore. Which means it’s not really anyone’s problem now – except people like Al-Kidd, but he’s Muslim, and yr not, so why worry? Only people you don’t know get their rights violated, and nobody gets to be held responsible.
Everyone wins.
Especially Ashcroft, who has just landed a new job as an “independent director” of private military firm Xe Services (formerly known as Blackwater), where he will head Xe’s new “subcommittee on governance,” which is designed to “maximize governance, compliance and accountability” and “promote the highest degrees of ethics and professionalism within the private-security industry.”
And you thought Republicans had no sense of humor.
No one’s to blame,
This is dF