Schakowsky Urges Justice Department to Reverse Plan to Limit Detainees Access to Lawyers

Press Release

SCHAKOWSKY URGES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO REVERSE PLAN TO LIMIT DETAINEES ACCESS TO LAWYERS

U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Committee on Intelligence, delivered the following remarks today at a press conference on Capitol Hill to protest the U.S. Department of Justice's recent decision to limit the number of visits lawyers can make to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Congresswoman Schakowsky has been a strong opponent of the Military Commissions Act and has been leading efforts in Congress to restore habeas corpus.

"We are gathered here today to object to the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to limit the number of visits lawyers can make to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Instead of just denying someone's ability to challenge their detention, the Bush Administration has taken it a step further by limiting their rights to even meet with their attorneys.

Sadly, this is just the latest example of the Administration's contempt for the rule of law and their disdain for the legal process. Since President Bush came into office we have seen a steady erosion of our constitutional rights and an assault on the civil liberties on which this country was founded.

Last October, our country took an enormous step backwards in our centuries-old commitment to legal rights when the Military Commissions Act (MCA) was signed into law. The most damaging provision in the MCA is the stripping of the right to habeas corpus, which eliminates a person's ability to legally challenge their detention. This concept is one of the most fundamental and important principles of our constitutional tradition.

The court-stripping provisions included in the MCA law will do serious harm to the long-standing rule that the government cannot just imprison people without giving them the opportunity for a fair and impartial determination that the detention is in accordance with the Constitution. Under MCA, people can be detained, forever, with no ability to challenge their detention in federal court. No administration should have that kind of power.

Shockingly, the Administration is making even more restrictions on the rights of detainees and their lawyers. Now the administration is citing the detainees' inability to challenge their detention as an excuse to severely restrict the prisoners' access to the civilian lawyers who have been representing them.

The Justice Department has asked the federal appeals court charged with handling all appeals of the detentions of Guantanamo detainees to:

*Limit lawyers to only three visits with their clients when previously lawyers had no restrictions on the amount of visits they could have with their clients;
*Allow all of their correspondence with the detainees to be opened and read;
*And give government officials the power to deny the lawyers access to evidence.

If accepted, the rules would make it all but impossible for the hundreds of lawyers working on Guantanamo cases to continue defending their clients.

And even more outrageous is the April 2nd and April 30th Supreme Court decisions that rejected appeals by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay by refusing to hear their cases challenging the validity of the military commission's law. Meanwhile, many of these detainees have been confined for more than five years without charge or trial.

The Administration's treatment of Guantanamo detainees is a serious miscarriage of justice and is counter to what America is all about, especially when many of the detainees may be innocent.

Without proper legal representation and without the ability to even challenge the legality of their detention in a court, Guantanamo Bay detainees, most of which have not even been charged with a crime, will never get their day in court.

That's why I am proud to say that I am an original cosponsor of the Restoring the Constitution Act and the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act. Both bills would reverse the damage the MCA has done to our country and to Constitutional and human rights. They would restore our reputation around the world as a democracy committed to legal rights and a system of justice that protects individuals.

The most important asset the United States has in the world community is our commitment to the rule of law and fair treatment. If we lower those standards, we lose our global standing and provide an incentive for other countries to lower theirs to provide worse treatment. America must remain a symbol of equality and fairness to the world community."

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