Restoring Habeas Corpus

Yesterday brought me to the most recent House Judiciary inquiry into restoring the writ of habeas corpus. The hearing consisted largely of round after round of Democrat jousting with a man named Bradford Berenson--a one-time counsel to President Bush who to this day, with surprising agility though seemingly shaky legal footing, thinks habeas rights should be broadly interrupted:

Most of the hearing, two hours in length, moved quickly in round after round of intellectual pugilism. After one topic had been exhausted, a new one began in earnest. When detainees are exonerated, for instance, there’s often a problem: no country will repatriate them. Many fear that, in such circumstances, innocent prisoners will remain incarcerated indefinitely. When Nadler pressed Berenson on this, it evoked one of the hearing’s weightiest repartees.

“The notion of bringing them into the United States strikes me as extremely dangerous,” Berenson cautioned. “We’re not always right.”

”Do we have a right under our laws to keep them in jail forever?” Nadler asked.

“If the only alternative is to release them into the population of the United States and give them immigration status,” Berenson asked rhetorically. “It’s a series of bad choices.” “That we created,” Nadler noted.

Give it a read.