Habeas Corpus, RIP

The power of the executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.

--In a telegram by Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secretary [| Herbert Morrison] (21 November 1943)

Credit to Andrew Sullivan for digging that one up.

It is a sad day in the United States when thinking progressives -- and for that matter, thinking conservatives -- are cheered, or at least, relieved by the compromise Graham/Levin/Kyl amendment hammered out last night.

As Digby noted so eloquently the other day when Graham first proposed his odious proposal to cut off "enemy combatants" entirely from the courts...

They're playing politics with habeas corpus for Gawd's sake. This isn't some fucking highway bill or a farm subsidy. It's the very foundation of our system of government and the single most important element of liberty. If the state can just declare someone an "unlawful combatant" and lock them up forever, we have voted ourselves into tyranny.

That rumbling you hear? It's the groans of Madison, Hamilton, and Adams. Well guys, more than 200 years, with only a brief hiatus. It was a good run, but all good things...

UPDATE: Felt a draft and added a title.