"The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said
Uhm. Ok. But this garbage needs to be shot down:
"We made it very clear these are enemy combatants," McCain said yesterday, defending his position. "They have not, and never have, been given the rights of citizens of this country."
I am hoping Obama will respond to this. Since he has already issued a statement in support of the ruling, and is a constitutional lawyer and all, perhaps he could explain to John McCain just how the Bill of Rights works.
In particular, the right to petition a court under the grand writ of habeas corpus is not, and was never intended to be contingent on US citizenship.
For a bunch of so-called "strict constructionalists" and "original intent" fetishists, you'd think conservatives would get this.
First up, let me just say "whew" that enough vestigial respect for the Rule of Law existed within the Supreme Court to make this ruling. In a properly functioning Court, this would be 9-0. I can't help but give some credit to Ted Kennedy for killing the Bork nomination, who was replaced in nomination by none other than today's decisive vote, Anthony Kennedy. Had Bork reached the bench, there would be no such rulings. How fitting that it was not one, but two Kennedys that led to this momentous ruling.
I partly wonder if Justice Kennedy is considering his place in history with this ruling, having seen the writing on the wall of how history will judge the Bush team. Jeffrey Toobin never quite came out and said it, but he strongly implied that O'Connor regretted her decision in Bush v Gore. Maybe Kennedy does too. I know the extremism of the Bush administration helped me realize what the true face of conservativism was, and reject it entirely. We'll see if Kennedy is just throwing us a bone to prop up his "swing" status (not likely given the import of this issue to Bush and Unitary Executive types) or if he's actually drifted ideologically in the next set of rulings (due up the remainder of this month).
Republican John McCain told reporters in Boston that he had not yet read the opinion, but expressed concerns about the rights it might impart to the people being held there.
"These are unlawful combatants, they are not American citizens and I think we should pay attention to Justice Roberts' opinion in this decision," McCain said, referring to the chief justice's dissent. "But it is a decision that the Supreme Court has made. Now we need to move forward. As you know I always favored closing Guantanamo Bay and I still think we ought to do that."
Today's Supreme Court decision ensures that we can protect our nation and bring terrorists to justice, while also protecting our core values. The Court's decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo - yet another failed policy supported by John McCain.
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