Three Cheers for the Rule of Law

Mr. Bush, L'état, ce n'es jamais tu. (The State is never you) My apologies for the high school French, but the use of the familiar form is intentional, and an insult.

Court Says Military Cannot Hold 'Enemy Combatant' - New York Times

In a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism, a federal appeals court ordered the Pentagon to release a man being held as an enemy combatant.

“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote, “even if the President calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution — and the country.”

“We refuse to recognize a claim to power,” Judge Motz added, “that would so alter the constitutional foundations of our Republic.”