1 Boring Old Man

The Court Hands Congress an Opportunity

Score one strong point for the Main Stream Media! David S. Broder’s oped piece in the Washington Post today is a balanced and sensible assessment of the recent Supreme Court ruling:

Once again the chief executive had to be reminded that he is not above the law. No more than the security threats Nixon invented to justify his rogue police state operations will the war on terrorism relieve the president of the burden imposed by the Constitution to "faithfully execute the laws." He can’t just make them up to suit his convenience.

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I am delighted that Republican congressional leaders say they hope to turn the ruling to their advantage by engaging the Democrats in a lively debate about the president’s counterterrorism strategy. That debate is long overdue. In the first reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress gave Bush broadly worded authority to protect the country and strike back at the terrorists. After that it paid little attention for the next four years to the way that authority was being used — and how the administration assumed additional powers.

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Now the court has plainly said to Congress and the administration, "You have to bring these proceedings under the law. We’re not telling you what the law should be, but you have to have some rules that are written into statutes — and conform to the standards the Constitution sets."

As Stevens put it, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the Guantanamo detainee, may be "a dangerous individual whose beliefs, if acted upon, would cause great harm and even death to innocent civilians . . . but in undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal prosecution, the executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction."

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Congress is coming late to this task, but it is not too late to make our laws and our practices conform to the Constitution. And to remind this president that the law applies to him, too.

Kudu’s to David Broder and Kudu’s to the Supreme Court!