Bringing The Nation Back On Track
Kudos to the Supreme Court for actually reading our Bill of Rights! ! !
They had to grab the wheel from George Bush and John Ashcroft. In its blockbuster enemy-combatant decisions last week, the Supreme Court steered a swerving nation back on its original course. No shortcuts in America, the justices admonished the president—here, the right way is sometimes the rockiest.
In cases that posed the greatest test to national ideals since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Court took a path that ultimately was its only choice. Against the Bush administration's vehement objections, it ordered that Yaser Hamdi—a U.S. citizen held incommunicado by the military since January 2002, allegedly for fighting on behalf of the Taliban—be allowed to contest his "enemy combatant" status or go free. And it opened the U.S. courts to some 600 alleged foreign aggressors detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who would otherwise have no forum in which to proclaim their innocence or protest their treatment.
It may not have been immediately obvious why the country's destiny hinged on the right of a bunch of alleged terrorist sympathizers to challenge their indefinite detentions under President Bush's command. But to appreciate the necessity, one only had to imagine a world where the justices had gone the other way. Today the president would be able to lock up anyone he wanted, for as long as he wanted, until he decided the threat of terrorism was over for good.
It turned out that only Justice Clarence Thomas wanted to live in that world. His eight colleagues instead placed their faith not in George W. Bush, but in liberty and due process—the fundamental values that have kept this democracy on track through various presidents, wars, and justices. The Rehnquist Court's wholehearted embrace of these essentials revealed just how far toward the edge the administration had veered: so zealous in waging the war on terrorism that it would risk sacrificing the soul of the cause.
They had to grab the wheel from George Bush and John Ashcroft. In its blockbuster enemy-combatant decisions last week, the Supreme Court steered a swerving nation back on its original course. No shortcuts in America, the justices admonished the president—here, the right way is sometimes the rockiest.
In cases that posed the greatest test to national ideals since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Court took a path that ultimately was its only choice. Against the Bush administration's vehement objections, it ordered that Yaser Hamdi—a U.S. citizen held incommunicado by the military since January 2002, allegedly for fighting on behalf of the Taliban—be allowed to contest his "enemy combatant" status or go free. And it opened the U.S. courts to some 600 alleged foreign aggressors detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who would otherwise have no forum in which to proclaim their innocence or protest their treatment.
It may not have been immediately obvious why the country's destiny hinged on the right of a bunch of alleged terrorist sympathizers to challenge their indefinite detentions under President Bush's command. But to appreciate the necessity, one only had to imagine a world where the justices had gone the other way. Today the president would be able to lock up anyone he wanted, for as long as he wanted, until he decided the threat of terrorism was over for good.
It turned out that only Justice Clarence Thomas wanted to live in that world. His eight colleagues instead placed their faith not in George W. Bush, but in liberty and due process—the fundamental values that have kept this democracy on track through various presidents, wars, and justices. The Rehnquist Court's wholehearted embrace of these essentials revealed just how far toward the edge the administration had veered: so zealous in waging the war on terrorism that it would risk sacrificing the soul of the cause.
posted by Shane at 11:37 AM
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