Masters of war…..

 

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian...2-20-2022

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Jackson: Supreme Court frontrunner

The new hard-right supreme court super-majority is settling in for years of political and judicial mischief. The Atlantic looked at supreme court history and the perils of a new court with an 1890s perspective. 

A court retirement by one of the remnant liberals has been announced; President Biden is about to fill the vacancy on the court created by the planned retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, a centrist member of the Democrat-appointed minority. 

Biden has already announced the appointee will be one of several well-known African-American women serving on lower courts. The frontrunner is believed to be the highly-qualified Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently serving on the DC circuit.

Headed for the court are the decisions of state and federal judges striking down, as racial gerrymanders, the latest congressional redistricting by states. The supreme court responded by reinstating an egregious Alabama racial gerrymander.

In a demonstrably partisan election-year interference, a 5-4 majority of the court used its "shadow docket" to lift a stay unanimously granted by a special three-judge federal court. Now, challenged districts whose legality is yet to be decided may be implemented in this year's elections. 

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberals; perhaps he now regrets personally gutting the Voting Rights Act 1965  in the infamous 2013 decision, Shelby County v Holder, another Alabama case.

It's only one lost seat for the Democrats, but five Republican-appointed justices couldn't resist the opportunity to put their thumbs on the scale in an election year . 

Court observer Linda Greenhouse called it the moment the court "crossed the Rubicon" of partisan activism; the court is now on track to completely hollow out the VRA before the 2024 election. 

READ THE REST HERE.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

 Perilous times. We here in the U. S of A could be doing so much more if we turned our hearts and minds to peace.... instead of our usual playbook.

another torture victim is cleared for release

 Mohammed al-Qahtani was cleared for release last week. The torture of Qahtani was one of the worst and was approved by the war criminal and now deceased former secretary of defense, Rumsfeld. 

From the website Close Guantanamo:
 

The details of his torture shocked the world when a day-by-day interrogation log was leaked to Time magazine in 2006. As the Times described it, the log revealed how "military interrogators placed Mr. Qahtani in solitary confinement, stripped him naked, forcibly shaved him, and subjected him to prolonged sleep deprivation, dehydration, exposure to cold, and various psychological and sexual humiliations like making him bark like a dog, dance with a man and wear women’s underwear on his head." As the Times added, "They extracted a confession, which he later recanted," and which included allegations that he had made against 30 other prisoners, falsely claiming that they were bodyguards of Osama bin Laden.

Qahtani was reportedly mentally handicapped even before the torture and will most likely need life long medical care. Word is that the Biden administration has worked out a deal for the Saudi government to take him and provide that care.  Let's hope this is true.

Read more here.

Positive change in the Government's position in Gitmo cases

 

In the military commission case of Al-Nashiri the government had successfully argued that evidence derived from torture did not apply to pretrial proceedings. 

 Now the government has reversed that position:

The government recognizes that torture is abhorrent and unlawful, and unequivocally adheres to humane treatment standards for all detainees. See Executive Order 13491. In the absence of direct authority interpreting Section 948r(a), the government took the position below that Section 948r(a)’s prohibition on admission of statements obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment applies only to the trial and sentencing phases of a military commission and not to pretrial proceedings. Since that filing, the government has reconsidered its interpretation of Section 948r(a) and, as a result of that review, has concluded that Section 948r(a) applies to all stages of a military commission case, including pretrial proceedings. In accordance with that conclusion, the government will not seek admission, at any stage of the proceedings, of any of petitioner’s statements while he was in CIA custody.

Maybe my government is starting to behave somewhat humanely!