[Guest post by DRJ]

As reported by Jake Tapper:

“President Obama’s Justice Department last night filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia arguing that the 600 or so detainees the U.S. is holding in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Base have no right to have their cases heard in U.S. courts. Unlike detainees at Guantanamo, those being held in Bagram – many of whom were picked up outside of Afghanistan — have had no access to attorneys or to even hear the allegations against them.”

In the brief, Solicitor General Elena Kagan argues that whatever limited rights detainees have under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene v Bush, which granted habeas rights to Guantanamo detainees, they “rested heavily on the ‘unique status of Guantanamo’.”

I think it’s time for civil rights advocates to stage their own march on Washington.

— DRJ

UPDATE: The Obama Administration also plans to extend key Patriot Act provisions that are due to expire.

This is all fine with me but it shouldn’t sit well with liberals who voted for Obama, especially those who cared about his vow to “regain America’s moral stature in the world”.