Kneecapping the Constitution

The Fifth Amendment says in part:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, ... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...

It unmistakably denies the President the right to hold any person in the United States without the due process of English common law.

Yet the Bushists, on the thinnest of legalisms, have held Ali al-Marri for six years without any of the niceties that a government of laws would obey. They have found lawyers who will argue that this is legal:

"What you assert is the power of the military to seize a person in the United States, including an American citizen, on suspicion of being an enemy combatant?" Judge William B. Traxler asked.

"Yes, your honor," Justice Department lawyer Gregory Garre replied.

Look, al-Marri may very well be guilty (though the past record of the Bushists is cause for skepticism). So try him, convict him if you can, imprison him, and deport him when his term is up. But don't pretend to represent the "Justice" Department when you argue against the law.

The Bushists have abandoned what it is to be American.

See this list of other Bushists abuses of the former U.S. Constitution.

Update: CNN carries the story, too.