OpEdNews - Diary: Suing to save America

::::::::

The bad news: Last month, Congress passed the disgusting detainee legislation that basically shreds the U.S. Constitution and allows George W. Bush to declare anyone an enemy combatant, detain that person forever, and torture them, without allowing them any opportunity to challenge their detention or prove their innocence. The good news: Bush has not yet signed this new legislation into law (although one must wonder why, since he so aggressively lobbied for it). And this delay has allowed a couple of human rights attorneys the opportunity to file lawsuits in U.S. District Court asking federal judges to strike down key parts of the measure as unconstitutional. There's a very good article in today's Christian Science Monitor that describes these lawsuits and the circumstances that prompted them. [Read it.] Will they succeed in saving our Constitution and our long-held American values? I certainly hope so, but I wouldn't bet my next paycheck on it. But at least something is being done, and that's a good start. On a side note, I have to point out that it's just so absurd that it has come to this. Our Founding Fathers are surely spinning in their graves. -----