Or, perhaps, more appropriately a Tea Party blind spot? Although they overlap enough that it's probably not an important distinction to make for this blog post.
So, to what do I refer? Well, while it's not the most timely of posts but this has bothered me for a while now so I figured I'd just throw it out there.
The Republicans and Tea Party folks talk about deference to the Constitution. They pull out pocket-sized Constitutions like amateur prop comics and wax poetic about the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. Fair enough. I should not need to make sure this is clear but I'll say it anyway: Liberals too, myself included, have a reverence for our founding document and governmental building block.
With that in mind, I am curious as to where military tribunals/commissions are found in the Constitution? I have perused Article III several times and do not see anything in there mentioning them? And while I don't even pretend to be a lawyer, it seems to me that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 would have to be considered unconstitutional given the Tea Party's supposed strict adherence to the original text of the Constitution.
It just seems to me to be liberals who, at least in this case, have greater faith in the Constitution and ideals contained therein.
ADDENDUM: I should note that the hardcore Tea Party purists may very well agree with my assertions here. I did do a check and the (more or less) ideological Godfather of the Tea Party movement, Ron Paul, was one of only seven of 230 House Republicans to vote against the Military Commissions Act.
No comments:
Post a Comment