The sun helped us out aplenty today by giving us more passers-by. We collected about 100 letters to Congress! Got ourselves a bit of campus coverage too.
Also today, a hint of hope…U.S. senators vow to restore rights to detainees.

Quote of the day goes to a 3rd grader on a field trip. After being explained what Guantánamo is, and how they treat people there, he shook his head saying, “Someone should build a time machine and go back in time and bring Harriet Tubman back to us. We need her now.”

Photo of the day

Today, we began our “Definite Detention” sit-out in Harvard Yard, in an effort to build momentum for the Congressional effort to repeal the habeas-stripping provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Apart from using striking symbols to attract attention and spark conversation, we talked to passers-by and got supporters to write individual letters to their representatives and senators.

We were joined by folks at Dartmouth, CUNY, NYU & the National Lawyers Guild. More schools are joining in the rest of the lobbying effort coordinated by the Center for Constitutional Rights. If you want to get involved, the main action center containing contacts, information, and suggestions is www.restorehabeascorpus.org

The official press release (PHOTOS BELOW):

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ORGANIZE THREE DAY CALL FOR HABEAS CORPUS RESTORATION

Action Coordinated by the Center for Constitutional Rights on Behalf of Guantánamo Detainees

April 25, 2007, New York – Today, university students on campuses around the country began two days of action calling for the restoration of habeas corpus and fair hearings for the almost 400 detainees who still remain at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The actions, which all began at noon Eastern Standard Time, were organized by law students and coordinated by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents many of the detainees at Guantánamo and coordinates the work of nearly 500 pro bono attorneys.

Habeas corpus, or the Great Writ, is the legal procedure that keeps the government from holding prisoners indefinitely without showing cause and has been a pillar of Western legal systems since the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. The passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 effectively stripped the Guantánamo detainees of their right to challenge their detention, despite two Supreme Court rulings that stated detainees do have the right to habeas corpus.

Said CCR attorney Emi MacLean, “It is a moral disgrace that we would deny the fundamental right to habeas corpus to anyone. We need to bring habeas corpus back – for the future of our country and for the people who have been detained without fair hearings and due process for over five years in Guantánamo.”

Participating students include representatives from the following schools: American University Dartmouth College, DePaul University, Harvard University, a coalition of students from New York City law schools including the City University of New York and New York University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Virginia, and other schools around the country. The planned actions range from 48-hour sit-ins to call-in and letter writing campaigns to Congressional representatives. They come as Congress plans on considering several bills that would restore the fundamental right of habeas corpus to the Guantánamo detainees.

At Harvard Law School, students have organized a sit-out demonstration to be complemented by a call-in and letter writing campaign.

“We voice our rejection to an American law that allows for indefinite detention and torture,” said student organizer Deborah Popowski of Harvard Law School. “We cannot stay silent. History will judge those responsible for enacting and perpetuating the Military Commissions Act, and if we refuse to act now, we, too, are complicit.”

For more information, please visit www.restorehabeascorpus.org and www.ccr-ny.org.

HARVARD

NYU, CUNY, National Lawyers Guild

DARTMOUTH

Student “Definite Detention” Sit-Out – April 25th noon (EST)

Responding to detainee bill, Harvard law students host funeral mourning death of Constitution

More than 50 Harvard law students and professors gathered last Thursday to attend a staged funeral for the Constitution, a somber protest against the denial of legal rights such as habeas corpus and freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment for detainees held by the U.S. in Guantanamo. Dressed in mourning attire, the organizers of the funeral offered a people’s eulogy to the nation’s most consecrated document, buried a mock-Constitution, and erected a tombstone over its grave.

“Two hundred and twenty-nine years ago the Constitution was born, but one week ago, in the mad rush as Congress closed before elections, it was killed, trampled underfoot by three hundred and eighteen Senators and Congresspersons,” Reverend Mike Jones said during the eulogy, referring to the recent passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The Act strips courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus appeals from detainees and gives the President broad authority to determine which interrogation techniques he deems permissible under the Geneva Conventions; students charge that these provisions risk leaving the door open for acts that constitute torture.

In keeping with their denunciation of the Military Commissions Act as a “Torture Bill”, the “pallbearers” of the Harvard funeral wore signs identifying them as individual Congresspersons who voted for the Act; they were also flanked by robed and hooded classmates who evoked the now-infamous image of torture in Abu Ghraib. The culmination of the funeral came as the members of the crowd came forward one by one to lay flowers on the Constitution’s grave, while the eulogy ended with a call to action for students and a clear message to members of the judiciary:

“If we bury the Constitution today, it is only to urge that the Supreme Court breathe life into it again… we know it has the means,” Reverend Jones concluded.

Held as part of a nationwide day of reflection on Guantanamo and the government’s broader response to the war on terror, the mock-funeral followed a two-hour public forum entitled, “Guantanamo: How Should We Respond?” Professors, students, and others gathered at the outdoor forum to speak out on such issues as the use of torture against detainees, the denial of due process rights to those held at Guantanamo, and the impact of U.S. anti-terror policies on the United States’ actual and perceived role in foreign policy and human rights issues around the world. This event also comes after a week-long advocacy effort by a coalition of Harvard professors who wrote an open letter to Congress urging the defeat of the Military Commissions Act. The open letter garnered 633 signatures from law faculty representing 49 states.

A copy of the letter bearing the 609 signatures that it had received prior to being sent to Congress is available here: Full Text of Open Letter

This is the new blog for the Stop Torture coalition at Harvard, and