Posted on 06/29/2004 6:00:36 AM PDT by OESY
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The Court's three rulings will surely complicate U.S. detention policy, at least at the margins. But at the same time they uphold the longstanding and proper deference that the Supreme Court has shown throughout its history to the executive branch on national security, especially in wartime. That includes decisions on how to define and handle a dangerous enemy. For a change, this particular Court actually restrained itself.
Most important, the Court upheld the authority of the Commander-in-Chief to detain enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens. That's the key finding of Hamdi, and the implicit basis of Padilla, which the Court threw back to the lower courts on jurisdictional grounds.
It's true that in its Guantanamo ruling -- Rasul, et al. v. Bush -- the Court has opened the door to a flood of litigation by ruling that both U.S. citizens and foreigners detained as terrorists can challenge their treatment in the federal courts. This pretty much guarantees that the 600 or so Guantanamo detainees will bring 600 or so habeas corpus cases -- perhaps in 600 or so different courtrooms, with 600 or so different judges demanding 600 or so different standards of what evidence constitutes a threat to the United States. Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent shreds the majority's messy reasoning.
But the solution here is for Congress to step in with legislation consolidating all of the Gitmo cases in a single court. Arlington, Virginia, would be a good choice, as that's where the detainees' ultimate warder, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is located. It also has the advantage of being located in the jurisdiction of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has already examined these issues in a serious way.
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All in all, the Court stepped away from the chaos of making judges the arbiters of American security. That's a welcome victory for the Presidency, no matter who wins in November.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
As Mark Levin wrote on this subject (NRO, yesterday): Let the debates begin!
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