Shadegg introduces bill to counteract SCOTUS ruling

U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoneix) has introduced legislation that would make military courts the arbiters of habeas corpus petitions for Guantanamo detainees, according to a press release from Shadegg's office. The bill comes in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that prisoners being held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba can petition for trial or release in federal court, as opposed to going through the military tribunals that have been reviewing these cases so far.

Shadegg argued that detainees were not U.S. citizens and have no right to habeas corpus, which instructs a court to determine whether a prisoner is being held on sufficient evidence or not.

"Suspected foreign terrorists captured abroad and detained outside U.S. borders do not possess the same constitutional rights as American citizens, plain and simple," read the statement by Shadegg. "It is outrageous that the Supreme Court of the United States has endangered innocent American lives so Guantanamo Bay detainees can experience the rights and freedoms of the society they seek to destroy."

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and an ally of Shadegg's, called the ruling by the Supreme Court "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," predicting that federal courts would be innundated with habeas corpus petitions. Meanwhile, his opponent, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), has praised the ruling.

While Shadegg made no claims on where the ruling ranks in the history of the high court, he did call the decision "shocking."

"It is shocking that, in a time of war, our nation’s highest court would charge appointed federal civilian judges, who have absolutely no expertise in terrorism or national security, with the responsibility of determining a detainee’s habeas corpus petition," said Shadegg.