By Ellen Ratner
Bureau Chief, Talk Radio News Service

Today is my brother Michael Ratner’s birthday and it is a “milestone” year, which we celebrated as a family last night. We toasted him, not just because he reached a great age, but because the Supreme Court handed him the best birthday gift a human rights attorney could possibly have; detainees are entitled to petition the courts in the time honored legal principal known as habeas corpus.

Michael is the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the legal organization that brought the first case on behalf of the Guantanamo detainees. He has been working day and night, through family vacations and weekends since 2002 on behalf of men (and even boys) detained without trial. It has not been without lots of hate e-mails and calls from people who consider him a terrorist sympathizer.

Far from being a terrorist sympathizer, Michael is a great believer in the Constitution and the rule of law in the United States. My family grew up mid-century thinking that the Soviet Union’s lack of real court trials was anathema to a real democracy. So, it was horrifying to many of us to find out that United States under the Bush Administration decided to lock up people with no access to trial. Three times there have been cases before the Supreme Court. Each time the Bush administration has found some way to make sure that the Gitmo detainees did not get their day in court.

As Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority yesterday “The laws and the Constitution are designed to survive and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled, and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law.”

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said he will try for a Constitutional Amendment to “blunt” the decision. It will go nowhere fast. The Bush administration will also try to slow this down as they do not want their “enhanced interrogation” techniques to come to the open light of day in the United States court system. This case is not just about the Guantanamo detainees it is about the backbone of our legal system and the rights and freedoms we all cherish. I am proud of my brother and proud of the United States Supreme Court.