Rule of Law and Common Sense
June 30th, 2006In the Washington Post, there’s an article today about the rule of Law and the War on Terror. The Supreme Court ruled a couple of days ago against Bush’s program in Guantanamo Bay, and today the Post weighs in.
In the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration secretly began constructing an emergency system to fight the war on terrorism. It asserted broad presidential power to conduct surveillance against American citizens, to harshly interrogate suspected terrorists in secret prisons, and to hold “enemy combatants” without charges or public trials. The Supreme Court demolished a central pillar of that jury-rigged national security edifice yesterday. In rejecting the administration’s plans to try a suspected al-Qaeda member named Salim Ahmed Hamdan before a military tribunal, the court majority was emphatic: The administration’s arguments were “unpersuasive,” “inapposite,” “unsound.” Even if Hamdan was as dangerous as the administration claimed, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority, “the executive nevertheless must comply with the prevailing rule of law.”
Justice Stephen Breyer, in a concurring opinion, spoke to the arrogant claims of presidential power made under the rubric of fighting terrorism. The court’s conclusion in Hamdan, he wrote, “ultimately rests upon a single ground: Congress has not issued the Executive a ‘blank check.’ ” The Hamdan ruling should be a cause for celebration, at home and abroad, because it demonstrates that the self-correcting mechanisms of American democracy remain healthy. Governments, as imperfect human institutions, make mistakes — especially in the pressure cooker the Bush administration faced after Sept. 11. But thanks to checks and balances from the courts, Congress and, yes, the press, this administration’s mistakes are being reversed.
I was happy to see this, as well. Democrats are pledging not to allow the Congress to raise its own salary until it raises the minimum wage. If Republicans expect families to survive on less than six dollars an hour, they can survive off of their present pay. Unfortunately, these are the only brightspots in a dark Presidency if you’re a person who believes in sound government, but it’s refreshing to have some good news, at least.