 |
Action: Call Your Senator to Restore Habeas Corpus |
 |
Senators Dodd and Leahy have put together a great tool to help get the votes needed to pass their Habeas Corpus Restoration Act, which would restore the fundamental right to a fair and speedy trial.
Only 60 Senate votes are needed to stop a filibuster, and right now we are showing 52 Senators who have confirmed they are voting yes. Let’s get that number to 60 before tomorrow’s vote!
Go to restore-habeas.org and enter in your name, email, and zip code. You’ll be given the direct numbers of your Senators. Give them a call, ask them to support the bill, and then input back in the response you got on the website. It’s quick and easy, it took me 10 minutes.
These Senators in particular need phone calls:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Sen. John Warner (R-VA)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO)
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Please give your Senators a call to help restore one of the most basic civil rights we have, especially if you see your Senator’s name on the above list. While you’re at it, after you call, report back here and let us know what the response was.
I just called. The site reports that Stabenow (MI) is onboard for passing the ammendment. Thanks to this bill I’ve grown a greater interest in Dodd. If they pass this one, we should draft a letter/phone/email campaign asking them to press forward new legislation guaranteeing American citizens the right to trial before reclassification as “enemy combatants.”
The current bill only affects non-nationals in detention. Its passage would be no small victory, to be sure. But once non-citizens in military custody can appeal for Habeas, it only seems right that everyone should move back up a notch; And that Americans should be assured that their constitutional rights cannot be removed of them without first SOME test of justice.
Dodd and crew would be hard pressed to ignore it now. Having pushed for foreign captive’s access to means of justice… It would be difficult to overlook these same of actual American citizens.