Free Republic

WHY did the Founders bother toiling in the summer heat of Philadelphia in 1787 writing a Constitution when they could have relied on the consciences of Supreme Court justices like Anthony Kennedy instead? Kennedy is the court's most important swing vote and its worst justice. Whatever else you think of them, a Justice Antonin Scalia or Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a consistent judicial philosophy - while Kennedy expects the nation to bend to his moral whimsy. With apologies to Louis XIV, Kennedy might as well declare la constitution, c'est moi!

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy arrives for a roundtable discussion titled 'Making Law Work for Everyone', Friday, June 13, 2008, at the Organization of American (OAS) in Washington. In writing for the court majority on the Supreme Court's decision on Guantanamo Bay on Thursday, Kennedy acknowledged the terrorism threat the country faces and the administration's justification for the detentions, but he declared, 'The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.' (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrive for a roundtable discussion titled 'Making...

As the world has just learned, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 yesterday that “for the first time in our Nation’s history, the Court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war.” So summed up Justice Scalia in a stinging dissent in which he was joined by justices Roberts, Thomas, and Alito. Justices Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, made up the majority Breyer.

President Kennedy Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy isn't known for his judicial modesty. But for sheer willfulness, yesterday's 5-4 majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush may earn him a historic place among the likes of Harry Blackmun. In a stroke, he and four other unelected Justices have declared their war-making supremacy over both Congress and the White House. Justice Jackson once famously observed that the Constitution is "not a suicide pact." About Anthony Kennedy's Constitution, we're not so sure.

...The practical effect of the decision is that approximately 200 detainees at Guantanamo (70 of the remaining 270 have already been approved for transfer or release) will be able to file a lawsuit in federal district court and force the government to prove that they are unlawful enemy combatants. The government will have to decide whether it wants to prove that each detainee is an unlawful enemy combatant in federal district court, and if so, will have to pull together the evidence quickly to prepare for the habeas/administrative hearings in court. The decision also calls into question whether the military...

In the latest effort to deconstruct and destroy the United States, the Supreme Court has decided that a foreign terrorist captured on foreign territory trying to kill Americans has just as many constitutional rights as a Wal-Mart shoplifter. The liberals think this is a good thing. That's because they're America-hating idiots. Sorry, Obama, but if the shoe fits, cram it up your backside. In the liberal world view, where the war against terror is no larger than Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, the United States military is a collection of war criminals and puppy killers. Guantanamo Bay – where jihadist murderers...