Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror Essay - 1

Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror - Essay Example In addition, the paper examines the habeas corpus in relation to the war against terrorism and the Supreme Court’s involvement, the involvement of the President and Congress in decisions regarding habeas corpus. Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror Following the September 11th attack, the US, then under the Bush Administration, viewed the act as an initiator to a war against the country. In addition, successive terror attacks in Bali, Madrid train attack and the London subway attack, the Bush Government saw enough proof that terrorism was escalating (Cole, 2003). The Government did not take these activities lightly as this saw immediate measures from it and allies against terror activities. Among this stern measures included military intervention into Afghanistan, capture, persecution, and in worst cases, the elimination of potential suspects in the terror activities. In addition, the War on Terror implemented methods such as detention centers for extra-judici al prisoners like Guantanamo Bay, rendition flights and new interrogation techniques among many others. Nature of the Writ Historically, the role of habeas corpus was to protect those arrested by the Executive without the involvement of any judicial activities. ... public Safety may require it.† Strange enough, this is the only statement about the Great Writ found in the US constitution as opposed to the high regard in which it was held during its inception. It has been established that it is only the Federal Government that is limited to the writ and not the State. Attention has arose as to who should be given the authority to suspend the writ or rather determine the case in which suspension of the writ would be most appropriate. Initially, the power of suspending the law rested with the legislature but in early commentary, the power of the Congress to suspend the law assumed and stated by the Court. In early Civil War period, the privilege law was suspended by President Lincoln on his own motion only to be met with much resistance forcing him to seek for authorization from the Congress. Presidents, in times of wars and emergencies, have extraordinary authority accompanied with possession of executive powers that result in asserted viola tions of rights of the constitution and other known legal rights. When a dispute is taken to court, one side of the court is of the view that a ruling for the challenger would expose the security of the nation while the other side is of the opinion that the ideals that make the preservation of the nation’s security worth should be held at all costs. Many courts, in their habeas corpus jurisdiction, have handled issues regarding separation of powers during wars. The writ of habeas corpus is a mechanism in which the courts have insisted that none of the King, the President or any other official may subject someone to detention unless a court of law does so. As long as the writ runs and in any given circumstance, including war, the courts have the power to enforcement of the most basic law

The Development of Print Documents for Online Delivery Essay

The Development of Print Documents for Online Delivery - Essay Example The production and distribution of news and other information materials through the traditional communication channels such as print, radio and television require a gatekeeper, a metaphor used to describe the process of selecting which information is worth delivering to consumers. This is necessary not only because of limitations on space, airtime, transmission frequencies and commercial interests but also because of equally important considerations related to reliability and trustworthiness. The era of digital media changed the concept of the gatekeeper into the gate-watcher, as the role of professional journalists or communicators has been narrowed and individuals gained more power, with ordinary citizens acquiring an increasing level of credibility as source of legitimate news. The gatekeepers keep their role and still decide what is newsworthy but ordinary citizens now provide a wider variety of news sources, which are more community-oriented. This paper discusses communication t heory according to the socio-psychological perspective, which suggests that communication achieves its purpose if it considers the prevailing beliefs and attitudes of its intended audience. From the theoretical perspective, the research essay describes the methodology used in a content analysis designed to gather empirical evidence that would support or validate the theories, which finding was then analyzed for its relevance to this research. 2. Theoretical Perspective According to the socio-psychological tradition in communication theory, there is a relationship between communication stimuli, audience predisposition and opinion change. To succeed, journalists and communicators must look for the cause-and-effect relationships that could predict when a communication message will be received favorably by its audience or when it will be ignored (Vaughn, 2008). In this view, communication can be effective in influencing public attitudes and opinions if it considers the "who, what, whom and what-effect" questions of socio-psychological tradition, which are often asked when journalists and public relations practitioners want to change people's minds. The questions refer to the source and content of the message, audience characteristics, and the opinion change it has caused. On the source, the message sender must project expertise and trustworthiness while the content must be appealing and credibly argued. The "whom" phase should consider the personality and gullibility of the audience, while the what-effect question requires that communicators measure the attitude scales before and after delivery of the message. Thus, the editor who hears a reporter say that his mother loves him will tell the reporter skeptically: "Check that out - from at least two sources (Griffin, 2003)." The socio-psychological influences in communication forms the basis of this research. 3. Methodology This study uses the quantitative approach that gathers the primary and secondary data of research through the observation and direct communication methods. The observation method refers to our review of the literature, which gives special attention to such new communication platforms as gate-watcher