Obama Administration Defends Bush: Appeals Decision Allowing Detainees to Challenge Imprisonment

Here we go again. Some of us warned repeatedly throughout the Democratic primary, that Barack Obama would wind up following in Dubya’s footsteps.

Think Progress reported yesterday that the Obama Administration is siding with the Bush Administration in appealing Judge John Bates’ ruling that ‘“some prisoners at the Air Force base in Bagram have a right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts, saying the detainees are “virtually identical” to detainees at Guantánamo and so they have the same constitutional rights granted in Boumediene vs. Bush.”’

Here’s the scoop from Think Progress:

The Obama administration said Friday that it would appeal a district court ruling that granted some military prisoners in Afghanistan the right to file lawsuits seeking their release. The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight. In a court filing, the Justice Department also asked District Judge John D. Bates not to proceed with the habeas-corpus cases of three detainees at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, Afghanistan.

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