Ouch. The Supreme Court dropped a big one on the Bush administration today in a 5-4 vote, saying that terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay do indeed have constitutional rights to challenge their detention.
According to Justice Kennedy: “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
There’s a novel thought.
Bush has said he will abide by the ruling but he doesn’t like it.
The 5-4 split led to sharp dissent from the four who didn’t follow the majority including Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas, with Scalia sharply saying that the ruling will “almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” I didn’t know the Supreme Court was allowed to demagogue so blatantly.
I’m of two minds on this. The first mind simply agrees with Kennedy. I’ve said it before, Osama has to be laughing in his cave about his success in tearing down our institutions.
The second mind isn’t so simple. If you’ve got the bad guy, have proof he’s guilty of committing terrorist acts against the US but a bullet in his head and be done with it. Holding him forever while trying to prove something doesn’t do anything for anybody except create a cancer in the body politic that will kill the American soul just as dead. Scalia’s comment proves that beyond any imagining.
