I have some good points if I say so myself -- and, really, who else is there to say so? -- and one of these good points is that I am not an attorney. So I cannot tell you with great authority whether the 5-4 decision in the Guantanamo detainees case last week is an example of activist justices gone crazy.

While I don't put any stock in the opinion of the court's right-wing troglodytes who conceive their job to be upholding any reactionary reading of the Constitution that mocks justice, there's a part of me that thinks it might be a stretch to grant habeas corpus rights to those alleged to be at war with the United States if they are imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

(I say "alleged" because while some detainees are doubtless terrorists, others are very likely to have been hapless characters guilty of nothing more than being at the wrong place at the wrong time and being sold out by villagers in Afghanistan for a reward).

But this I know: Guantanamo Bay has been a stain on America's very soul and the court did the nation a great favor in pulling back slightly on the reins of the wayward, galloping war horse that is the Bush administration.

Three times now the court has rebuffed the Bushies and their extraordinary theory of unbridled executive power. So whatever legal pirouettes were necessary to reach this latest decision, I say thank goodness for justices with a conscience.

The truth is that the Bush administration has been -- as they used to say back in the day -- cruisin' for a bruisin'. In their heavy handedness, they have made a hash of prosecuting the war on terror with their wild goose chase in Iraq and a fear-provoked assault on civil liberties at home.

I reckon they got the result they deserved.

[ Permalink ]    [ Respond to this post ]