Thursday, June 29, 2006
Clearly, the Supreme Court is expressing its exasperation with the indefinite detention of people outside the jurisdiction of American and international law, most strongly in its refusal to accept congressional action stripping it of the authority to hear habeas corpus petitions filed by Guantanamo detainees. The Court is sending an unequivocal message to the federal court system to stop evading the issuance of decisions on the merits through procedural subterfuges.The Supreme Court today delivered a sweeping rebuke to the Bush administration, ruling that the military tribunals it created to try terror suspects violate both American military law and the Geneva Convention.
In a 5-to-3 ruling, the justices also rejected an effort by Congress to strip the court of jurisdiction over habeas corpus appeals by detainees at the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
And the court found that the plaintiff in the case, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, could not be tried on the conspiracy charge lodged against him because international military law requires that prosecutions focus on specific acts, not broad conspiracy charges.
Much of the media coverage today suggests that the Bush Administration will seize upon the decision as an opportunity to extricate itself from the criticism associated with Guantanamo and move towards closing it. Perhaps. If so, it would constitute a radical departure from the administration's effort to concentrate all power in the executive, and thus, I remain dubious. Furthermore, the right has a history of running against the Supreme Court, with the so-called "pro-life" movement being the most obvious, but not the only, instance.
No doubt Karl Rove is familiar with this history. The temptation to step into the shoes of Andrew Jackson and George Wallace must be great. If Bush obstructs compliance with the ruling of the Court, what happens next? Will the federal judiciary issue orders requiring it? If Bush stalls, will the judiciary demand immediate action on behalf of the rights of the detainees, now much more comprehensive in light of the application of the Geneva Convention? And, if the judiciary does so, how will such orders be enforced against a President who declares that he remains free to disregard bills that he signs into law? What is to prevent him from treating the judiciary in a similar fashion?
Labels: "War on Terror", American Empire, Guantanamo, Imperial Presidency, Supreme Court
