July 3, 2008 11:23AM 

# Time to Skedaddle? 

By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) 

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ABC News reports that the Bush administration may be on the verge of [closing Guantanamo](http://blogs.abcnews.com/legalities/2008/07/bush-to-close-g.html). This is because the recent [*Boumediene* ruling](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061204202.html) will be bringing [judicial scrutiny](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/30/ap/government/main4219914.shtml) to the facility. In other words, from the standpoint of Bush administration lawyers, if the law pertaining to habeas corpus is coming to Guantanamo Bay, it may be time to [get out of Dodge!](http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/21/cia.tapes/index.html) Quick, move the prisoners to places where the judiciary [can’t find them](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301793.html). This might be called the “executive flight privilege” because when a person (who is not in the employment of the state) tries to evade the course of justice by leaving town to avoid arrest or the institution or continuance of legal proceedings, prosecutors say it is [unlawful flight](http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm01785.htm).

This turn of events was [foreseeable](https://www.cato.org/2007/12/05/supreme-court-and-gitmo/). Too much emphasis on Guantanamo (i.e., who has sovereignty? The U.S. or Cuba?) would perhaps inevitably lead to more [cat and mouse](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/28/AR2008062801638.html) games between the executive and the judiciary. If the courts would [focus more on the jailor and less on the jail](https://www.cato.org/pubs/legalbriefs/boumediene_vs_bush.pdf), the cat and mouse stuff might finally stop.

##### Related Tags 

[Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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