davidvoegtle.net

John C. Coughenour – The Right Place to Try Terrorism Cases – washingtonpost.com: I have spent 27 years on the federal bench. In particular, my experience with the trial of Ahmed Ressam, the “millennium bomber,” leads me to worry about Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s comments last week, urging Congress to pass legislation outlining judicial procedures for reviewing Guantanamo detainees’ habeas petitions. As constituted, U.S. courts are not only an adequate venue for trying terrorism suspects but are also a tremendous asset in combating terrorism. Congress risks a grave error in creating a parallel system of terrorism courts unmoored from the constitutional values that have served our country so well for so long.

Once upon a time we were a nation ruled by laws, not by fear. Once upon a time, we entrusted the courts as the arbiter of justice, not the political branches. Coughenour gets it exactly right when he says:

Courts guarantee an independent process, not an outcome. Any tribunal purporting to do otherwise is not a court.

Any attempt to alter the process so as to arrive at a preconceived outcome ought to be viewed with suspicion. Any attempt to reduce the independence of the panel hearing the case should be rejected. Any law that seeks to justify the creation of kangaroo courts in “land of the free and the home of the brave” must be protested.