4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, July 10, 2006
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Decommissioned
Guantanamo ruling sets stage for justice;
Congress must follow through
JEREMY DAVIDSON
Editor in Chief
IMRAN SYED
Editorial Page Editor
JEFFREY BLOOMER
Managing Editor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890.
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other
signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author.
Editorial Board Members: Amanda Andrade, Emily Beam,
Jared Goldberg, Theresa Kennelly, Christopher Zbrozek
FROM THE DAILY
A volatile budget
Funding increase helps but stable increases needed
Maybe Guantanamo isn't so legal
after all.
The recent Supreme Court rul-
ing on the Bush administration's military
commissions has the potential to put a ser-
ous damper on further war plans. In a 5-3
decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld - Chief
Justice John Roberts recused himself, having
previously ruled on the case in a lower court
- the court ruled that the military commis-
sions conceived for prisoners held at Guanta-
namo Bay by the Bush administration were
unconstitutional. Not only did the court find
them in violation of the Uniform Code of
Military Justice, but also the Geneva Conven-
tion, which it declared to be part of America's
laws of war. The majority opinion, echoing
a previous decision from two years earlier,
deemed the president did not have a "blank
check" to carry out any policies he wished.
The implications of this ruling are a slap
in the face to the Bush administration's
logic about enemy combatants in the war
against terrorism. The administration has
held that the Geneva Convention do not
specifically apply due to the fact that the
terrorists held are not imprisoned on U.S.
soil and because they are not soldiers in any
state army. The court rightfully concluded
such reasoning is flawed and illegal.
The Geneva Accords comprise an inter-
national treaty signed by America after
World War II. According to Article Six
of the U.S. Constitution, any agreements
and treaties entered into by the nation
and approved by the Senate "shall be the
supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges
in every State shall be bound thereby, any
Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any
State to the Contrary notwithstanding:'
In addition, the Court ruled that the
conspiracy charge against the plaintiff -
Salim Ahmed Hamdan, one of Osama Bin
Laden's drivers and bodyguards - is not a
war crime, regardless of the endless ratio-
nalizing and fear tactics that administration
officials still spew.
Still, it's unlikely that Hamdan or any
other detainee at Guantanamo will be
released. The court did not invalidate the
use of Guantanamo as a prison, nor did it
demand the release of all prisoners. Rather,
the prisoners still held there must now be
tried in military tribunals or by some other
process devised by Congress.
We maintain that the proposed Internation-
al Criminal Court would be the best place to
try and convict international terrorists who
do not fight for a particular country's army.
Yet, this being impossible under the stubborn
ignorance of this administration, the next
best thing would be military tribunals run in
accordance with the Geneva Convention and
other prevailing international statutes.
The administration and its supporters,
including Supreme Court Justices Antonin
Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito
and Chief Justice Roberts, who all sup-
port the administration's stance, have often
contended that the Constitution allows the
president to conduct the war at his own
discretion, by authority granted to him as
commander in chief. The majority of the
court, however, rejects such "reasoning,
giving life to the concept of checks and bal-
ances against all odds.
Since Sept. 11, the president has waged
the war against terrorism by his rules. The
Supreme Court, upholding the values of
the Constitution, has sent clear message
to the administration. Even in war, the
president's power is never absolute and he
must still submit to constitutional checks
and balances. It now becomes Congress's
responsibility to devise a fair process and
not simply grant the president the danger-
ous authority the court denied him. For-
give us if we don't hold our breaths.
The University needs money to
run, and getting more of it is
never a bad thing. So, as mem-
bers of the state legislature
congratulate themselves on supposedly
recognizing the value of higher education
for Michigan's future and increasing state
appropriations to the University by 3-per-
cent, we applaud them, even if their action
is curiously timed - with elections loom-
ing just around the corner.
But the minute increase is not nearly
enough to make up for the disastrous cuts
in state funding that recent years have
brought. More importantly, though they
increased funds, state lawmakers still
don't understand the disastrous role fluc-
tuating funding has played in the hard
times state universities are facing and in
the corresponding tuition increases. If
they truly appreciate the importance of
higher education in the future of Michi-
gan's economy, responsible action would
entail nothing short of adequate, mandat-
ed funding levels for higher education that
increase with inflation.
Some observers believe state universi-
ties already have enough money, and this
3-percent increase for the University will
be more than enough. But consider that
state funding has been cut 13.7 percent in
the past three years alone, meaning current
state funding levels are about 11 percent
less than they were in 2003. With factors
like inflation and rising energy costs ever-
more in play, the University will be forced
to raise tuition despite this small increase
in state funding.
Raising tuition gives birth to many new
LIVE ON YOUR FEET
problems. Prospective students will see
rising tuition costs as a sign that college is
out of their reach, leading to a less-educat-
ed workforce in a state that already faces
one of the highest unemployment rates in
the country and could use more college-
educated workers.
The University has a policy of raising
financial aid to meet the raises in tuition
rates, but even this process creates prob-
lems. To provide more money for financial
aid, the University must cut back in other
areas, leading to larger class sizes, layoffs
and termination of courses and research
programs. The only solution is for state
funding to be more stable and at a level that
is sufficient for universities. This would
allow universities to plan ahead, not simply
on a year-by-year basis, letting them engage
in more long-term programs, assured of the
availability of funding.
For too long,this page has echoed the cries
of prudent observers of the state economy in
railing against the inclusion of higher edu-
cation as part of the discretionary spending
portion of the state budget. Higher educa-
tion shouldn't be something funds trickle
down into when all other programs are paid
for - it is a top priority and must be treat-
ed as such. It should not be continuously
dynamic, subject to the whims - political
or otherwise - of any politicians.
The time to end annual political influence
on state appropriations for higher education
has come and gone. But legislators would
do better to act late than never in taking the
decision out of the hands of their succes-
sors and providing state universities with
the financial stability they dearly need.
Vote or die
August primary vital for student voices to be heard
So you've read up on local and nation-
al politics and now just can't wait to
go out and exercise your constitu-
tional duty. All you've got to do is go out
and vote in November, right?
Wrong. If you want to have a say in
local government, the time to vote is the
primary on August 8, and the last day to
register is today. Sure, the general elec-
tion isn't until November. But no Repub-
licans are registered in the primaries for
seats on the Ann Arbor City Council or
in the mayoral race, all but guaranteeing
that the winners of the Democratic pri-
maries will win come fall.
That means that as far as city govern-
ment goes, the real election is the August
primary. You can check whether you're
registered in Ann Arbor at www.mcgi.
state.mi.us/mivote/voterSearch.aspx. If
you aren't, you can register at the City
Clerk's office, at 100 N. Fifth Avenue.
It's unfortunate that the primary election
- which almost always carries far more
weight in blue-tinted Ann Arbor than the
general election - occurs during the sum-
mer, when most students are out of town.
That's due to a broad state law that fails to
take into account the circumstances facing
college-aged voters. It's not the toughest
hurdle in the way of college students who
have the temerity to exercise their right
to vote. That dishonor goes to the infa-
mous state law requiring voter registra-
tion and driver's licenses to list the same
address, which discourages many students
from registering to vote where they attend
school. (That law happened to be drafted 0
by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich), then a state
senator, with the purpose of keeping lib-
eral Michigan State students from voting
against him in his successful, if crooked,
Congressional campaign in 2000). Bla-
tantly gerrymandered wards that split the
student vote also don't help students get 6
their concerns heard in city hall.
The design for a fair democracy doesn't
include barriers to keep significant classes
of people - in the case of students in Ann
Arbor, one-third of the population - from
voting. The only weapon students have is
to show up and vote despite the barriers.
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