Industry Figure Tom Chappell

Quietly, without any fuss, and certainly without any hearings, the United States Senate voted Thursday to eliminate habeas corpus. It’s nothing special, nothing that you should get all worked up about; it’s just the foundation of what separates a first-world nation from a third-world nation.

Habeas corpus grants a prisoner the right to have a hearing before a judge to determine whether or not that prisoner is wrongly imprisoned, and on Thursday, in an amendment to “Bill S. 1042″ brought by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the Senate voted to kill it.

But don’t worry–they only voted to eliminate it for terrorism suspects down in Guantánamo Bay prison, certainly nothing to do with you, unless the authorities happen to have some reason to suspect you and drag you there, or to one of the illegal gulags that Dick Cheney is so intent that the CIA be allowed to maintain overseas.

I mean, Jesus Christ, this is only something that’s been around since the Magna Carta (1215), and the Goddamn Senate just votes 49-42 to kill it, after an hour’s debate? Even fricking John McCain voted to kill it!

Amazingly, more Democrats voted in favor of the hideous rights-destroying amendment than Republicans voted against it:

Democrats crossing over to kill habeas corpus:
    Joseph Lieberman
    Ben Nelson
    Kent Conrad
    Ron Wyden
    Mary Landrieu

Republicans crossing over to save it:
    Arlen Specter
    Gordon Smith
    Lincoln Chafee
    John Sununu

Read the Full Story at the New York Times:
“Senate Approves Limiting Rights of U.S. Detainees”
November 11, 2005

Read the News Release from the ACLU:
“ACLU Urges Congress to Reject Court Stripping Measure; Proposal Denies Detainees the Right to Challenge the Use of Torture”
November 10, 2005

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Of course, as Industry Figure John Blackburn points out, we’ve still got a lot of Latin left in the U.S.: “Caveat emptor, for example, is so safe it’s not funny.”