Free Republic

One of the differences between liberals and conservatives, and therefore between most Democrats and most Republicans, concerns whether the fight to defeat the Islamic terrorists is best handled by the criminal justice system or by the military. This is one of the reasons why so many Democrats have opposed warrantless wiretaps on foreign Al Qaeda communications with domestic accomplices, why they opposed the Patriot Act, why they opposed tough questioning of enemy combatants, and why they opposed the ‘Military Tribunals Act’ President Bush signed yesterday.

Lynne F. Stewart, the firebrand lawyer known for defending unsavory criminals, now faces the possibility of living out her life like many of them, in maximum-security lockdown in a federal prison. Today, 20 months after she was convicted on terror charges, Ms. Stewart and two co-defendants who were convicted of conspiring with her will be sentenced in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Prosecutors, arguing that Ms. Stewart repeatedly flouted the law to aid the violent designs of an imprisoned terrorist client, have asked Judge John G. Koeltl to condemn her to 30 years in prison. That would be a life...