Artworks created by Guantánamo detainees "will no longer leave prison confines and can now legally be destroyed. Attorneys for several prisoners were told the military intends to burn the art," according to
this op-ed by Prof.
Erin Thompson of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
The New York Times. Excerpt:
Art censorship and destruction are tactics fit for terrorist regimes, not for the U.S. military. The art poses no security threat: It is screened by experts who study the material for secret messages before it leaves the camp, and no art by current prisoners can be sold. Guantánamo detainees deserve basic human rights as they await trial. Taking away ownership of their art is both incredibly petty and utterly cruel.
Even if the Supreme Court were one day to hold that the Fifth Amendment applies to Guantánamo detainees (an issue
Joshua Geltzer explored
here in 2012), does the new policy, reported first
here by the
Miami Herald's
Carol Rosenberg, violate the Takings Clause? Probably not.
See Ward v. Ryan (9th Cir. 2017).
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