The supreme court decision yesterday

Our founding fathers would be very happy today checks and balances worked the way it was designed. They fought and died to give us protections that the king consistently violated--our country has been blessed with their wisdom. These protections have created a stable nation, a stable economy, able to overcome any challenge facing it with integrety and a refusal to accept the post-modern relativism that says we are not obligated to uphold the same moral values we impose on others. It has given us a strong Republic which we must be good stewards of. As i'm always taught by my mentor--"cooler heads will prevail" and they did today.

Bob Barr the Libertarian Presidential candidate had a great statement on today's supreme court ruling which I wanted to pass on.

U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Fundamental Civil Liberties, Says Bob Barr
June 13, 2008 6:11 pm EST

Atlanta, GA -- Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court made two critically important rulings. The first concluded that detainees in Guantanamo Bay could seek habeas corpus relief in federal court. The second stated that an American held by U.S. forces in Iraq was entitled to the protection of habeas corpus.

With these two decisions the Court "has reaffirmed one of the foundations of American liberties, the historic writ of habeas corpus—which requires the authorities to show cause for an arrest," explains Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. The justices did not order anyone released, instead leaving that decision up to the trial judge after a full and fair hearing.
Barr, who since leaving Congress in January 2003 has become one of the nation's leading advocates for protecting privacy and civil liberties, explained that the decision "is as much a victory for the American people as it is for any particular litigant." The right to habeas corpus is enshrined in the Constitution: "by allowing a defendant to seek relief in court, habeas corpus is one of the most important legal limits on government," explains Barr.

However, he observes, these decisions, though welcome, "are only the start in a long process of reasserting our liberties." Congress must not, for instance, cave in and allow warrant-less surveillance of American citizens under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). To this end, Barr joined with the ACLU, Liberty Coalition, American Library Association, Citizen Outreach, and other organizations to oppose a proposal by Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO) to limit judicial review and gut other proposed safeguards against government abuse.

The threat is bipartisan, warns Barr. "The Bush administration has spent seven years attempting to give the executive branch unprecedented powers without any accountability, while the Democrats have refused to use their authority to hold the president and his appointees accountable," Barr explains. And after pretending to be a Republican maverick, "Sen. McCain's staff says he would spy on Americans without warrants just as President Bush has done."

"We must give the U.S. government the tools necessary to defeat terrorism, but in doing so we must not sacrifice the freedoms that make America great," says Barr. Today's Supreme Court rulings are a good beginning. Now, he emphasizes, "It is up to the rest of us to finish the job of restoring America's constitutional liberties."
Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.

Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens' right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.

Its unfortunate that some feel that even as they ask "why they hate us" we conduct ourselves showing the same disdain for law, order, and basic civil liberties which the fundamentalist have. Since 2003 recruits for Al Queida has sky-rocketed, the middle east has destabilized, Iran has grown in strength, Bin Ladin is still on the loose, Afghanistan and Iraq are worse off than before the war according to experts, and public opinion in the middle east and across the globe has dropped to levels that makes it hard for us to work within these countries to find and stop the terrorist. We will win with free speech, open markets, and strong legal mechanisms that allow neither for kicking down doors in the quiet of the night, nor secret trials without access to legal protections.

At least we can still count on the supreme court. And fortunately the Democratic leadership is working hard to keep in committee the Impeachment effort of Kuncich because they correctly point out that impeachment only divides us and keeps us from addressing the many important issues we need to be facing--such as ranking 37th in the world for health care. The supreme courts ruling today proves this to be true.

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." --James Madison

"A republic, if you can keep it." --Benjamin Franklin