Taken from the Constitution:
Section 9 - Limits on Congress
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
The Constitution says you can do this. The problem with the Bush Adminstration's approach is that they went behind the other branches of government's backs to do this. Congress is the only one with this power to suspend habeas corpus. If Congress approves a limited suspension of habeas corpus rights, there is no violation of the Constitution if done in the appropriate time ("when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.") The courts also need to be able to oversee these decisions and have people challenge whether or not the executive branch has properly exercised these rights.
There was no legal framework put forth by the Bush Adminstration for determing when this was appropriate and who this power could be used upon. They were just lumping everyone together and suspending all of their habeas corpus rights, including American citizens. Obama is proposing a system under which their are strict criteria authorized by Congress that must be met for this to apply, and the courts must be able to oversee this decision. That is completely consistent with the Constitution. The Bush Adminstration just did this all unilaterally without any authorization or oversight from the other branches of government.
Its not violating the Constitution if you do what the Constitution requires you to do.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
