Legal News

McCain on Gitmo Ruling: ?One of the Worst Decisions in the History of This Country.”

By Jamie Heller

Yesterday we did a roundup of intraday reaction to the Supreme Court’s Boumediene decision, which held that foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay may challenge their detention before a federal judge. Most of the reaction we identified was positive or at least not surprised.

John McCain speaks during a town hall meeting in Pemberton, N.J., on Friday. (AP)

Today, we have some strong articulations on the other side, in particular from Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, who, as the headline above notes, calls the ruling “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” See this report from the Journal’s Elizabeth Holmes, who covered a speech McCain gave in New Jersey today. McCain said he’d appoint justices like John Roberts, and cited his dissent in the case.

The Journal’s editorial page seemed equally displeased. In an editorial titled “President Kennedy,” the authors said: “We can say with confident horror that Americans are likely to die as a result” of the decision. The editorial called Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion “remarkable in its sweeping disregard for the decisions of both political branches” and his analysis “disengenuous.”

LB readers: Feel free to weigh in on the Boumediene decision and these analyses of it. We’d also like to hear what you think are the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of this country.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).