FOR ARLEN SPECTER, limits on the right of Guantanamo prisoners to petition for the writ of habeas corpus in federal courts have long been a sore point. When Alberto Gonzales appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Pennsylvania’s senior senator grilled him on two interrelated subjects: whether the Constitution expressly guarantees the right to petition federal courts for writs of habeas corpus, and whether the Supreme Court’s recent Rasul decision affirmed such a constitutional right.
On the former question, Specter received Gonzales’s answers with flippant incredulity, but in fact both sides of the argument enjoy substantial support. And on the latter question, Specter’s ire was completely inappropriate, for his description of Rasul bore absolutely no resemblance to the Court’s decision.
