DOJ TRIES TO RESTRICT LAWYERS FROM GUANTANAMO PRISONERS

William Glaberson writes in today's The New York Times that the Department of Justice wants stricter controls on Guantanamo inmates' access to their lawyers.

"Saying that visits by civilian lawyers and attorney-client mail have caused “intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo,” a Justice Department filing proposes new limits on the lawyers’ contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases that would replace more expansive rules that have governed them since they began visiting Guantánamo detainees in large numbers in 2004. "

For every one of us who are trained as lawyers, this move is reprehensible and disgusting. The belief in the rule of law where the accused have access to legal counsel has to be one of the main tenets of every lawyer's beliefs. By eliminating legal counsel from an accused, the state can do anything it wants, without fear of being held itself to the rule of law.

The DOJ's proposal shows how little it values the rule of law and the proposition that everyone, no matter how serious a crime he/she has been accused of, has a right to a fair trial and diligent representation.