Torture Jack Bauer would rather go to prison than fail to save Los Angelis from an A-bomb. We don't need laws allowing anyone to torture in exceptional circumstances. If exceptions are allowed, they will only be abused eventually. Legal ramifications will be gladly endured by the type of extraordinary individuals who will make that sacrifice to keep this country safe. If they are so sure a suspect has the information, they will risk their personal freedom on their hunch to engage in torture. If they are wrong, they will get their punishment. If proponents of torture (including all its euphemistic forms) want to cite Jack Bauer and his Ticking Clock of Doom, they must accept the full premise and all its trappings. Writ of Habeas Corpus

Dating back to the 1600's, this guarantees prisoners the right to petition a legal body, through a standard of due process, to make a preliminary claim that they have been held wrongfully, and to have this reviewed by said legal body. It is additionally included in part of a larger U.S. constitutional set of rights preventing individuals from being held indefinitely without either release or trial. The U.S. Supreme Court has also ruled that the Bush Administration cannot prevent detainees from being designated outside of both the Geneva Conventions and U.S. criminal law, not to mention Cuban law, while they are being held at Guantanamo Bay. They must fit into some category. Detainees cannot be in a conveniently legalistic no-man's land, devoid of any laws or standards.

At its core, it is anathema to the spirit of law and justice to throw out the old and create the new as it suites you. Instead of law deriving out of history, standards, legislation, and judicial review, it derives here from a king-like figure and his entourage of clerics or, as in this case, lawyers.

The government's case is worsened by their