Repealing the Constitution: The Military Commissions Act of 2006

“Repealing the Constitution: The Military Commissions Act of 2006” will be the subject of the Alameda Public Affairs Forum on November 11th, 2006, from 7 to 9 PM, at the Home of Truth, 1300 Grand Street, Alameda. Robert Harmon of the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force will be addressing this important subject.

On Sept. 28, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which could:
- allow the Administration to designate any person -- US citizens included -- as an "enemy combatant" subject to summary arrest and detainment with no chance of appeal;
- allow the Administration to interpret the Geneva Conventions as it sees fit, including as to what constitutes abusive interrogation;
- partially repeal the 800-year-old right of habeas corpus appeals;
- permit military commission trials with limited rights of due process and counsel, and in which coerced evidence and secret evidence is admissible, and
- exclude the courts from reviewing "enemy combatants'" arrest, detention and trial.
The presentation will review this law and provide background on the legal history leading up to this point.

Robert Harmon is a 2005 graduate of the New College School of Law. He represents the National Lawyers' Guild's Military Law Task Force, for which he served as a law intern in matters of military and wartime law, including important research in military commission trials. He is a longtime member (and former chair) of the Marin Chapter of the ACLU, and formerly served as a Major, Military Police, US Army Reserve.

There will be time for questions and discussion with the audience after Mr. Harmon’s talk.

For further information contact Julie Rufo at jrufo [at] sbcglobal.net or go to http://www.alamedaforum.org.