In a small but significant victory for free speech, Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at Guantánamo Bay, announced a $100,000 settlement Tuesday in his lawsuit against the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service.
Davis was fired from the CRS in 2009 for authoring two opinion pieces (one in the Wall Street Journal, the other in the Washington Post) that criticized President Obama for prosecuting some terror suspects in federal courts and others in military commissions — what Davis called a “dangerous legal double standard.”
Davis became an assistant director at CRS after retiring from a 25-year career as an Air Force lawyer in 2008.
The ACLU sent a letter to CRS in 2009 asking for Davis’s reinstatement, noting that his work at CRS had nothing to do with Guantánamo Bay. When CRS refused, the ACLU sued on Davis’s behalf.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that government employees do not have First Amendment rights when speaking in an official capacity. But the taglines in Davis’s pieces made it clear that he was writing in a personal capacity and did not even mention the CRS.
Davis hailed the settlement as a vindication of his right to speak out about Guantánamo.
“I spent 25 years in the military defending the Constitution, only to be told by the library that it didn’t apply to my personal speech” he said in a statement. “Guantánamo remains too important a conversation about who we are as Americans to let the federal government try and silence the debate.”
Davis had already built a record of speaking out about injustice at Guantánamo by the time the CRS hired him. While still at Guantánamo, Davis tried to ban the use of evidence obtained under torture, but his superiors overruled him. After William Haynes — the Pentagon general counsel and a key player in the President Bush’s torture program — became his boss, Davis resigned. “The guy who said waterboarding is A-OK I was not going to take orders from,” he explained at the time.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama called the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay a “flawed system.” But he endorsed them after deciding not to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — the self-described mastermind of the 9/11 attackers — in a federal court in Manhattan. Mohammed’s case is still held up in pretrial motions, and the military commissions system has yet to achieve a verdict for any of the 9/11 attackers.
Top photo: “Witness Against Torture: Colonel Morris Davis” by Justin Norman using CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Pride, it is a strange thing. The monsters that have taken control of America are proud of their efforts to rid the world of the things they do not like whilst enriching themselves as reward for doing so. What an ugly little game they play. One day the mute creatures of the Earth will feast on their corpses, but none will feel such pride that they have eaten such great men. And what God would make them welcome for all eternity, to hear forever more their tales of greed? None, for there are none; just cold death for all as time moves ever on.
The 9/11 attackers were killed in the plane crashes, what does Bush do, he invades 2 countries and kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people who had nothing to do with 9/11. After winning the war he then starts torturing the prisoners. By not trying the prisoners in federal court means there is no evidence to convict them, or the evidence was gotten from torture. If Bush was on the table with ISIS soldiers standing around him, it would not take 5 minutes for him to admit that he was the planner of the 9/11 attacks. These prisoners should be released and paid money, to show the world that we are returning to be a nation of JUSTICE..
Bush armed ISIS, that was the point of smashing Iraq: to create a cross-border global excuse for the USA to do whatever it wants. Attack Syria, threaten Iran, disrupt Africa, destabilise Europe, discredit Russia, cause expense to China, create enemies and division, cause fear, spy, murder, usurp, control. Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth for later generations to firm their grip on the world. Poisonous Insanity has taken control of The Whitehouse and none of us can do anything about it whilst we argue over the details.
“..the military commissions system has yet to achieve a verdict for any of the 9/11 attackers.”
That’s no surprise, as it is not really known who those attackers were, except from ‘evidence’ put forward mere days after the attacks, by that ever so entrapping org., the FBI. Hopefully the lawsuit against the Saudis will go through and we will eventually find out just how Cheney and Rumsfeld pulled off the crime.
Mr.Davis has something none of the ziomonsters possess.Honor.
Thank you, again, Col. Morris. My kinda soldier (even the Air Force.)!
*Perhaps your honorable decision had some influence on ret CIA Director Gen. Hayden who recently said about torture/waterboarding … ‘if they (meaning President Trump!) order the CIA to waterboard (or ‘a hell of a lot worse’) someone they better bring their own bucket’!!!
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” Ron Paul
worth seeing
worth remembering
thanks for stating that
If I do have the Power I would like to reinstate col. Morris Davis back into his position at CRS. Reason: 1 Davis has a big heart for the public, 2 He had not been given efficient timing or clarity with the new guideline that was presented to him, 3 Everyone makes mistakes but only to those who see it not meeting their expectations. If Davis was very good employee and had good recomendations from others then he should have just gotten a warning the first time. That is it, it is that simple. Amen to him for being a warrior.
Here is a man who stood by his convictions about human rights and had the courage to express them. Wherever there are such people, in whatever country in the world they live, their actions must be defended. Congratulations to him and congratulations to the ACLU for standing up for him.
thanks much for bringing up this most important issue of American Freedoms in jeopardy (or in the toilet) Mr. Alex Emmons.
Americans arent worthy of such notification so says wallstreet war media!
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that government employees do not have First Amendment rights when speaking in an official capacity.
oh i get it. That phrase where it says “CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS” was a lie. Kind of goes along with the prosecution of whistle blowers for abiding by their oaths to the Constitution of the U.S.
I dont know what or when Pres Obama drank and went all stupid and pimped out for the cocoon squad, but it happened.
Thank you Col. Davis for your courage…..
What was the nature of the settlement? Was anybody held responsible? thanks.
Good question–who made the decision to terminate Davis? Name names.
People like this colonel that have the courage to speak up are the ones who we should respect and admire. Not sports “stars” and Kardashians’.
Amen to that!
@Chris –
One more Amen h ere.
Desde mi patria un amen mas para este digno y valiente hijo de la Tierra