Legal Commentary

Boumediene isn't a rebuke to Bush, but a judicial grab of power over war from the Executive and Legislative Branches

By Beldar

Some people seem to think the current question about the detainees at Gitmo is whether Dubya can simply lock them up and throw away the key without ever giving any of them any sort of trial.

For example, in comments to my post from Thursday deploring the Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene v. Bush, one reader wrote:

The Supreme Court has simply said that we have to demonstrate that there is some legitimate reason for continuing to hold them now and you call that the worst Supreme Court decision ever??

Similarly, another reader commented:

One of the most conservative courts in history has simply said that Bush&Co. cannot abrogate the most fundamental part of the rule of law, the right to be charged with crimes instead of being held indefinitely, in presidential frat boi pique.

These comments are not just wrong, they are spectacularly wrong.  No one could possibly hold these views unless he or she is badly confused by a highly advanced stage of Bush Derangement Syndrome, or else he or she has been asleep for the last five years (and didn't bother to get even remotely up to speed on the prior Supreme Court decisions on Guantanamo Bay detainees).

Full post as published by BeldarBlog on June 15, 2008 (boomark / email).