THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD STRONGLY OPPOSES THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006 Contact: Marjorie Cohn, President-elect, NLG, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923 Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, NLG, director@nlg.org, 212-679-5100 The National Lawyers Guild is strongly opposed to the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush Administration, this law was rammed through Congress with very little debate. Contrary to Bush's claims that it will protect us against terrorism, the Act strips detainees of basic constitutional rights and makes a mockery of the United States government's stated commitment to human rights. This law denies the right of habeas corpus to non-U.S. citizens whom Bush has declared to be enemy combatants. Thus, the nearly 500 men detained at Guantánamo will have no opportunity to convince a federal court that their detention is unlawful; they will spend the rest of their lives in prison, never being charged with any crime. Since the U.S. Constitution allows Congress to suspend habeas corpus only in times of invasion or rebellion, this provision is unconstitutional. It further gives the government the right to declare any persons, including U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants" if they are determined to have "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents." Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist" organizations, or who writes or speaks out against the government's policies, could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely. The United States, as a party to the Geneva Conventions, is obliged to enforce their provisions. Yet the new bill denies any person who claims his or her rights under Geneva have been violated from raising those claims in U.S. courts. The bill immunizes Bush and his officials from war crimes prosecution for past torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody. It also waters down the list of war crimes punishable by the U.S. War Crimes Act. Non-citizens who are charged, tried, convicted and executed in military commissions can be denied basic due process rights under the new bill. The government can use hearsay evidence and evidence obtained by coercion to secure convictions. The accused can be denied the right to see all of the evidence against him. "Historically, in times of war and national crisis, the government has targeted immigrants and dissidents. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 follows in the footsteps of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Alien Enemies Act, the Alien Friends Act, the internment of citizens and non-citizens of Japanese, German and Italian descent, and red-baiting that destroyed many lives during the McCarthy era," according to Marjorie Cohn, president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild. Our constitutional right to dissent is in grave jeopardy. The National Lawyers Guild strongly opposes the Military Commissions Act of 2006. # # #