Editorial #5: Mr. Marri's Day in Court

“Mr. Marri’s Day in Court” focuses on a suspected terrorist’s, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, unjust sentence to almost six years of detention in a military jail (by the command of former president, George W. Bush). He was arrested back in 2001 after evidence of alliance to an al-Qaeda sleeper cell aiming on ruining the U.S. financial system and information on bombs and chemical weapons on his computer were found. Now, the Obama administration is demanding that Marri’s case be sent to the Supreme Court for a lawful hearing that he should have had years back. However, the writer goes on saying that the Supreme Court should not put the case on the docket because it’s no longer a serious issue. Also, the U.S. Court of Appeals (the 4th Circuit) ruling should be vacated because it would not only eliminate the right of the president to “indefinitely” hold a person without charge, but also assure Marri’s place and hearing in the federal system. No president should be allowed to simply get rid of another person like that, and Supreme Court Justices should not allow anything like this to happen again in the future.

This editorial was another very different and interesting topic. I had never heard of Marri before and was surprised to hear the way he was treated. If even the most brutal of all dictators, Saddam Hussein, was given a trial, then you would think that this one person would have gotten one, too. I was able to understand the parts where the different federal courts were involved, and I believe that no president should have the right to just say and have someone punished like that. The duty of our court systems is to interpret law and justice and every person is given the right to a fair trial – especially if Marri was a legal citizen at the time of the arrest (which he was). Even if Marri is convicted guilty, the justices are just going to reaffirm the label of “enemy combatant” onto Marri and will not challenge the president’s authority to detain a person without charge (because it’s a precedential power).