Leahy calls Gitmo decision "stinging rebuke" for Bush

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) used his position as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to launch into a partisan attack on the Bush administration's respect for the Constitution and on activist judges.

Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

Giving the luncheon speech at the American Constitution Society national convention in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Leahy used the opportunity to attack President Bush on the Supreme Court decision regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees.

"The Guantanamo Bay decision was a stinging rebuke of the Bush Administration," Leahy charged. "I'm in support of the Constitution of the U.S.A. If we turn our backs on the Constitution, where would we be?"

"We have to protect national security, but security does not overcome our rights," Leahy said, insisting upon the primacy of individual rights in the conduct of the war on terror. "Security has to subsist with freedom and personal liberties."

Last week, in Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that suspected terrorists such as those currently being held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to challenge their incarceration in federal courts.

Leahy took a slap at Bush, with a comment that signaled his support for Barack Obama.

"We need a president who has actually read the Constitution, understands the Constitution and will respect the Constitution," Leahy told the 700 luncheon attendees, suggesting an obvious comparison between President Bush and Barack Obama, who is a lawyer.

President Bush holds an MBA from Harvard business school, while Barack Obama is a graduate of Harvard law school.

"In Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court did the right thing in the detainee case upholding the great writ of habeas corpus," he insisted, to sustained applause. "When I heard the decision, I wondered 'Why do we have to have a 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court to uphold habeas corpus in the United States?' It should be unanimous."

"How many times have we criticized countries that have held people incommunicado?" he asked rhetorically. "What do you think the image is of our great and wonderful country abroad when other countries see the United States operating the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay? I want to be able to reintroduce the U.S.A. to the rest of the world, when they can see us doing what we should be doing."

Leahy also lashed out at conservative judges, "We need judges who do not play favorites. We need to educate the American public today about the importance of judges by translating the Supreme Court's technical decisions into what they really are – important decisions with real life consequences."

Leahy threw back a charge conservatives usually levy at those on the political left by charging that conservative judges were the real activist judges who were intent on rewriting the Constitution.

"Activist conservative judges on the Supreme Court have turned the law on its head and made the court not a protector of rights for the U.S. citizen but for business interests," he said, asserting that leftist judges were the real protectors of the Constitution.

Citing a series of court decisions reached in the federal district and circuit courts as well as the Supreme Court, Leahy charged Bush administration judicial appointees are intent in transforming constitutional law into protection for corporations, rather than protection for the rights of the average citizen.

"The Supreme Court has said to corporations, 'If you can get away with it, you have our blessing,'" Leahy said.

He also ridiculed the conservative argument that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the "original intent" of the founders.

"I'd be happy if the court went back to original intent," Leahy said. "Instead, what we have are activist judges who are determined to interpret federal laws to preempt state laws. The Bush administration says, 'Protect the rights of states unless it violates the rights of our contributors.'"

He also attacked the Bush administration's "unitary view" of government in which the executive branch is assumed to be pre-eminent over the legislative and judicial branches.

"The Bush administration's unitary view of government is that they are the law such that their law overrules everybody else," Leahy asserted.

"The Bush administration's argument is nothing more than a blatant power grab to assert that their view usurps everybody else," he insisted. "The Bush administration says we want our word to be the final word and we want the Supreme Court to get in line with that view."

Leahy's speech concluded with a standing ovation from the attendees.

On Saturday, the American Constitution Society ended its two-day national convention in Washington, D.C., titled, "Revitalizing Our Democracy: Progress and Possibilities."

The ACS describes itself as "one of the nation's leading progressive legal organizations," a description which positions the ACS on the political left.

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