I'm One Step Closer to Not Going to Gitmo

After years of worrying that someday I'll be sitting at my house, watching Lifetime movies when out of the blue the NSA will show up, handcuff me, haul me off to Gitmo and leave me there to rot without ever telling me what I am charged with, an announcement from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will make it easier to sleep tonight.

In a case stemming from the imprisonment of alleged terrorist Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who has been jailed at a military facility for 5 years without ever being charged with a crime, the court ruled that the U.S. Government cannot subject citizens or legal residents to indefinite military detention, even if those persons are labeled as enemy combatants.The panel summarized that "the Constitution does not allow the President to order the military to seize civilians residing within the United States and detain them indefinitely without criminal process, and this is so even if he calls them 'enemy combatants.'"

Keep in mind, this doesn't mean that the U.S. can't arrest "enemy combatants" who are U.S. Citizens or Legal residents. They can still do that. They just have to arrest them and guarantee they have the same rights as anyone accused of committing a crime. There has to be "evidence" and "charges" and "lawyers" and "their day in court" and all that good stuff. This is a step in the right direction.

The fact that this ruling took 6 years and will still be appealed is a little sad. If we throw out the Constitution to protect our freedoms from terrorists, what is there left to protect? Yeah, pretty deep I know.