Washington, April 12: The man who taught President Obama constitutional law is now accusing him of violating it in his own administration. Laurence Tribe, who was one of Obama’s professors at Harvard and served as a Justice Department legal adviser until last December, has signed onto a letter with over 250 other legal scholars assailing the Obama administration for its treatment of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of divulging classified documents to Wikileaks.
The letter, published in the New York Review of Books, asserts that Manning, 23, is being held “under degrading and inhumane conditions that are illegal and immoral.” It also suggests that his treatment could be interpreted as torture.
Manning is currently held at a military prison in Virginia. Under the terms of his detention, he’s kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and stripped of his clothing each night, a precautionary measure to prevent him from self-injury according to military officials. He must also verbally answer the question “Are you okay?” every five minutes of the day.
The letter says the sum of his conditions are “a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee against punishment without trial.” Manning was arrested in May 2010 but he has not yet been tried for any crime.
The letter also questions why Manning is being treated as a suicidal prisoner who requires maximum security detention.
–Agencies