Does HR 6166 EH really give the president the power to suspend the constitution and the Geneva convention?

Question

Please answer only if you have read the full text of the bill, as passed by congress.

Please do not answer if you are being paid by any group to supply answers on this site.

S 3930 is the Senate version, HR 6166 is the version that the House of Representatives voted on..

Answer 1

In plain language, since the bills are deliberately obfuscatory in language;
It does away with constitutional rights if the executive office decides that you are supporting terrorism in any way. That can include disagreeing with what the executive says.

It suspends the right to a speedy trial, the right to trial by a jury of your peers, and if they say they think you may have had some involvement with torture, it legalizes torture and overrides the torture bill of 2005.

Habeas Corpus is suspended, you do not have the right to face your accusers or to see the evidence against you, and in fact there need be no evidence. All this can be used against U.S. citizens if martial law is declared or in the absence of martial law. if you have been classed as aiding terrorism in any way. And that is the biggest danger in the bill, it gives the Executive Branch the apparent power to make you a "terrorist" with the wave of a hand and in the best tradition of totalitarianism, you just disappear.

The Geneva Convention, which applies to captured enemy military is overridden ex post facto to cover war crimes already committed and any that may be.

Though verbiage in the bills purports to demonstrate constitutionality, the bill is anti-constitutional and a good prelude to dictatorship.

So the plain language answer to your question is, yes.

Answer 2

Okay, I read it here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-6166
And here is what it says regarding terrorists being covered by the Geneva Convention:
``In this chapter: 5 ``(1) UNLAWFUL The ENEMY COMBATANT.--(A) 6 term `unlawful enemy combatant' means-- 7 ``(i) a person who has engaged in hos- 8 tilities or who has purposefully and materially 9 supported hostilities against the United States 10 or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy 11 combatant (including a person who is part of 12 the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces); or 13 ``(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the 14 date of the enactment of the Military Commis- 15 sions Act of 2006, has been determined to be 16 an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant 17 Status Review Tribunal or another competent HR 6166 EH 4 1 tribunal established under the authority of the 2 President or the Secretary of Defense. 3 ``(B) CO-BELLIGERENT.--In this paragraph, 4 the term `co-belligerent', with respect to the United 5 States, means any State or armed force joining and 6 directly engaged with the United States in hostilities 7 or directly supporting hostilities against a common 8 enemy.

And here is what it says about the president acting under the Constitution:
The authority to establish military commissions 9 under chapter 47A of title 10, United States Code, as 10 added by section 3(a), may not be construed to alter or 11 limit the authority of the President under the Constitution 12 of the United States and laws of the United States to es- 13 tablish military commissions for areas declared to be 14 under martial law or in occupied territories should cir- 15 cumstances so require.

So basically, everything in the bill is CONSTITUTIONAL.
So the answer, though technically it's yes because those laws no longer apply to terrorists, is no.
The Constitution applies only to citizens of the US, and the Geneva Convention only applies to UNIFORMED combatants, who are loyal to a particular country.
Sorry, terrorists don't qualify for either one.

Answer 3

I am curious. What do you mean by "suspend the Constitution and the Geneva Convention."

The Constitution applies to the Governments dealings with citizens and LEGAL residents of the United States. The Geneva Convention applies to the treatment of Prisoners of War from the armed forces of the signatory nations. Since terrorists and insurgents do not have citisenship or legal resident status, AND they are also not members of an armed force of a signatory nation to the Geneva Conventions, NEITHER document legally applies to them or affords them any protections contained therein.

Answer 4

You are reading the wrong bill. It is S.3930