Five Cheers for the Rule of Law

Stevens. Breyer. Ginsburg. Souter. Kennedy.

Big thanks to these five Supreme Court justices. For the first time in years, people in positions of authority spoke up for the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the basic ideals of this country as they appear in the Constitution.

Sorry, Mr. President, but you're not above the law.

Sorry, Mr. President, but Article 3 of the Geneva Convention applies--just because these "terrorists" don't wear the uniforms of countries we recognize, they are entitled to trials with all appropriate protections.

Sorry, Mr. President, but if you don't like it that the Supreme Court wonders what the hell you're up to in Cuba, you'll have to go back to Congress and have your lackeys gut treaties and write fresh bully-boy laws.

Ooops. Am I giving Bush the idea to lean on Congress? Not at all. Getting laws changed so he can legally lynch detainees at the Easter Egg Roll is exactly what he's going to do.

Oh well.

And before we start sipping champagne and proclaming the Republic saved, consider what Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer and blogger, points out:

This decision illustrates just how critical is the current composition of the Supreme Court. The decision was really 5-4 (because Roberts already ruled in favor of the administration in the lower court). The Justice who wrote the majority opinion, John Paul Stevens, is 86 years old, and as Justice Blackmun once famously warned, he "cannot remain on this Court forever." If the Bush administration is permitted to replace Stevens with yet another worshipper of executive power, the next challenge to the Bush administration's theories of unchecked power could very easily result, by a 5-4 vote, in the opposite outcome.

In short, this time next year, we could very easily get Supreme Court rulings that tip--semi-permanently--power to the branch that craves it the most. In that case, a lot of rulings that might have undermined the criminal enterprise currently masquerading as a government will go in Bush's favor. And then it will be 2009--at least--before we begin to find out how badly we've been fleeced.

All of which makes the fall congressional elections even more crucial. Like the idea of the Geneva Convention? Like three equal branches of government? Like whatever rights you have left?

Then you'd better think twice about voting Republican.

Think I'm just a Dem shill? Then read Jane Mayer's article in this issue of The New Yorker. These guys are deadly serious. If they have their way, George Bush will wear a crown.