Guantánamo detainees: supportive evidence...? Tish-tosh... That's so constitutional... So YESTERDAY...!

justice...? detainee rights...? rules of evidence...? constitutional guarantees...? how quaint...!

The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to review an appeals court decision that it said had created a “serious threat to national security” by requiring the government to supply extensive evidence supporting the classification of more than 180 Guantánamo detainees as enemy combatants.

The administration asked the court to choose one of two options: either accept its appeal for expedited review, with arguments taking place in May and a decision to come in the current term, or defer action until the justices decide the case on the rights of the Guantánamo prisoners that is currently before them.

Under either option, the administration is seeking a stay of the lower court’s ruling, which it characterized as “serious legal error.”

The ruling, issued last July by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, became final on Feb. 1 when the full appeals court rejected the administration’s request for reconsideration by a vote of 5 to 5.

On Wednesday, the appeals court granted a stay until Feb. 21 to permit the administration to seek relief in the Supreme Court.

note the deliberately chosen adjective, "extensive," a word that somehow manages to suggest "excessive" without actually saying so... after five goddam years, the very likely odds of lost sanity, and now the threat of capital punishment, don't you think those detainees DESERVE "extensive", even "excessive," evidence...? shouldn't our criminal government be REQUIRED to present very nearly INCONTROVERTIBLE EVIDENCE to support its case...?

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