I just got an email from a good friend of mine, Steve Sanders. He writes: Dear friends,

This message is going to my lawyer and non-lawyer friends in Indiana whom I know share my belief that anxiety over national security cannot cause us to lose sight of our core values.

The attached letter from Habeas Lawyers for Obama makes many important points, but here is the argument in a nutshell:

“Some politicians are all talk and no action. But we know from first-hand experience that Senator Obama has demonstrated extraordinary leadership on this critical and controversial issue. When others stood back, Senator Obama helped lead the fight in the Senate against the Administration's efforts in the Fall of 2006 to strip the courts of jurisdiction, and when we were walking the halls of the Capitol trying to win over enough Senators to beat back the Administration's bill, Senator Obama made his key staffers and even his offices available to help us. Senator Obama worked with us to count the votes, and he personally lobbied colleagues who worried about the political ramifications of voting to preserve habeas corpus for the men held at Guantanamo. He has understood that our strength as a nation stems from our commitment to our core values, and that we are strong enough to protect both our security and those values.”

The letter has been signed by more than 125 habeas lawyers from all over the country, including several from Indiana. The signers include two former Judge Advocate Generals of the U.S. Navy (Adm. Guter and Adm. Hutson) and John Gibbons, the former Chief Judge of the Third Circuit. Judge Gibbons, who was appointed to the bench by Richard Nixon, argued the first Guantanamo case (Rasul) in the Supreme Court in 2004.

I am supporting Barack, and I hope you will as well. Please pass this message along to others.

Thanks for your time, and best regards,

Sheila Suess Kennedy's blog | login or register to post comments