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Justice Anthony Kennedy saves America

Supreme Court upholds habeas corpus

    by Will Bunch | Columnist
    Published 

Yup, the Senate knew what it was doing in 1987 when it blocked extremist Robert Bork from the Supreme Court and triggered the chain of events that led Ronald Reagan to appoint more sensible moderate Anthony Kennedy. Today, it was Kennedy who stepped forward to rule that the U.S. Constitution can't be shredded and tossed away in the name of a war on terror:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Kennedy was the swing vote, wrote the majority opinion, and penned these words (PDF file) that ought to be tattooed on the forearms of Bush and Cheney when they're shown the door in January:

The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law. The Framers decided that habeas corpus, a right of first importance, must be a part of that framework, a part of that law.

Someone alert Rush Limbaugh: Five Stalinist wackos are on the loose in the nation's capital!