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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Ann Coulter :: Townhall.com Columnist
Justice Kennedy: American Idle
by Ann Coulter
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After reading Justice Anthony Kennedy's recent majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush, I feel like I need to install a "1984"-style Big Brother camera in my home so Justice Kennedy can keep an eye on everything I do.

Until last week, the law had been that there were some places in the world where American courts had no jurisdiction. For example, U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over non-citizens who have never set foot in the United States.

But now, even aliens get special constitutional privileges merely for being caught on a battlefield trying to kill Americans. I think I prefer Canada's system of giving preference to non-citizens who have skills and assets.

If Justice Kennedy can review the procedures for detaining enemy combatants trying to kill Americans in the middle of a war, no place is safe. It's only a matter of time before the Supreme Court steps in to overrule Randy, Paula and Simon.

In the court's earlier attempts to stick its nose into such military operations as the detainment of enemy combatants at Guantanamo, the court dangled the possibility that it would eventually let go.

In its 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the court disallowed the Bush administration's combatant status review tribunals, but wrote: "Nothing prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority (for trial by military commission) he believes necessary."

So Bush returned to Congress and sought authority for the military commissions he deemed necessary -- just as the court had suggested -- and Congress passed the Military Commissions Act. But as Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in dissent in the Boumediene case last week: It turns out the justices "were just kidding." This was the legal equivalent of the Supreme Court playing "got your nose!" with the commander in chief.

The majority opinion by Justice Kennedy in Boumediene held that it would be very troubling from the standpoint of "separation of powers" for there to be someplace in the world in which the political branches could operate without oversight from Justice Kennedy, one of the four powers of our government (the other three being the executive, legislative and judicial branches).

So now even procedures written by the legislative branch and signed into law by the executive branch have failed Kennedy's test. He says the law violates "separation of powers," which is true only if "separation of powers" means Justice Kennedy always gets final say.

Of course, before there is a "separation of powers" issue, there must be "power" to separate. As Justice Scalia points out, there is no general principle of separation of powers. There are a number of particular constitutional provisions that when added up are referred to, for short, as "separation of powers." But the general comes from the particular, not the other way around.

And the judiciary simply has no power over enemy combatants in wartime. Such power is committed to the executive as part of the commander in chief's power, and thus implicitly denied to the judiciary, just as is the power to declare war is unilaterally committed to Congress. As one law professor said to me, this is what happens when the swing justice is the dumb justice.

Kennedy's ruling thus effectively overturned the congressional declaration of war -- the use of force resolution voted for by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, 75 other senators as well as 296 congressmen. If there's no war, then there are no enemy combatants. This is the diabolical arrogance of Kennedy's opinion.

We've been through this before: Should the military run the war or should the courts run the war?

I think the evidence is in.

The patriotic party says we are at war, and the Guantanamo detainees are enemy combatants. Approximately 10,000 prisoners were taken on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Of those, only about 800 ended up in Guantanamo, where their cases have been reviewed by military tribunals and hundreds have been released.

The detainees are not held because they are guilty; they're held to prevent them from returning to the battlefield against the U.S. Since being released, at least 30 Guantanamo detainees have returned to the battlefield, despite their promise to try not to kill any more Americans. I guess you can't trust anybody these days.

The treason party says the detainees are mostly charity workers who happened to be distributing cheese to the poor in Afghanistan when the war broke out, and it was their bad luck to be caught near the fighting.

They consider it self-evident that enemy combatants should have access to the same U.S. courts that recently acquitted R. Kelly of statutory rape despite the existence of a videotape. Good plan, liberals.

The New York Times article on the decision in Boumediene notes that some people "have asserted that those held at Guantanamo have fewer rights than people accused of crimes under American civilian and military law."

In the universal language of children: Duh.

The logical result of Boumediene is for the U.S. military to exert itself a little less trying to take enemy combatants alive. The military also might consider not sending the little darlings to the Guantanamo Spa and Resort.

Instead of playing soccer, volleyball, cards and checkers in Guantanamo, before returning to their cells with arrows pointed toward Mecca for their daily prayers, which are announced five times a day over a camp loudspeaker, the enemy combatants can rot in Egyptian prisons.

That may be the only place left that is safe from Justice Kennedy.

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About The Author
Ann Coulter is a columnist and author of Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault On America.
 
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Ann Coulter Should Die A Horrible Death
She is an enemy of Canada. If some person out there is willing to help me, I will have no problem taking out our enemy Ann Coulter. The way Ann Coulter feels about Taliban terrorists, is the same way I feel about Ann Coulter. So according to her logic, I would be in my right to kill her.

Drill Now, Impeach NOW!
It is past time to impeach, try and convict Kennedy, Stephens, Souter and Ginsberg for crimes against the United States. They have totally violated their oath of office, abrogated their responsibilities to the Constitution and rendered decisions that not only unconstitutionally make law, but include in their decicion process their own personal opinions and laws from other sources.

What the hell happened to Justice in this country? It's been usurped by crooked Judges.

restore judicial and legal confidence
I am a retired judge, running for congress in district one in Las Vegas, NV. My siblings killed my parents in Beverly Hills ( Morris and Sara Sternlight), who lived 6 blocks of the Menendez family, and stole my parents' millions. The siblings used the same doctors and mail order pharmacy used by the butler who had allegedly killed Doris Duke the tobacco heiress; and my parents' trust was forged several times with the help of lawyers. All because I was judge, then named Cohen, born in Jerusalem; and publicly expressed my belief in Jesus, on TBN. The lawyers and judges were so corrupt I felt I was living in the USSR and nazi Germany. I am on the ballot as:"Eve No. 1 Mom" as I couldnot use my judge title. I am a Reaganite and would be glad to submit my resume. I welcome any help and support . thank you, judge eve cohen ellingwood (ret), judgeeve@att.net; 1350 3. Flamingo rd., 568, Las Vegas, NV 89119; fax 702-892-9472; campaign phone: 702-216-7333

If there's no war, then
"If there's no war, then there are no enemy combatants."
It is the other way around. If there are no enemy combatants, then there is no war. The Iraqi army was disbanded; if not Iraq, what army are we fighting?

Mac Moore
Thank you for being so clear.
Enemies in wartime are not the same thing as criminals.
Why would we want to waste all that time and money paying lawyers to bring enemy soldiers to court. Where are they going to collect evidence?
Who are they going to believe?
What are our soldiers being accused of here? Are they going to make accusations against our soldiers based on enemy evidence?
A-ha!
Could this be the judges drumming up some business for the Lawyers Union looking for big bucks? Do they want to sue the Military? Why would the Supreme Court want to take the sword out of the President's hand? Of course they have already taken Legislative duties from the Legislature.

Supreme Court
I seem to remember in 1998 Osama Bin Laden was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the southern district of NY. From 1998 to 2002 we new where Bin Laded was. If the FBI is the way to go why didn't Director Freeh go to Afghanistan and areest him. The answer is the FBI has no jurisdiction in Afghanistan. The 101st Airborne has jurisdiction.

Ted Sherman
Lake Katrine, NY

Still thinking about skipping your vote?
If anyone still has doubts about letting Obama have the easy win by staying home on election day or - and this is difficult to say - voting for Obama - the importance of choosing the next supreme court justice should dissuade you.

Excellent!
Nobody does a better job of exposing the fallacies of left-wing ideology through satire. Thanks, Ann.

Power
"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I don't understand why the US must follow the rulings of a renegade court or it's renegade unelected judges. If a court legislates from the bench as many judges are doing now then those rulings must be ignored and the judges removed from the bench. Whether a tyrant rules from a throne or rules from a judge's bench makes no difference the people are still being enslaved. Down with them all.

Why? Because the left wants it.
They IMPEACH supreme court justices don't they? Thank you Bush 41!

Question
How does a person prove he's a US Citizen until he's produced in court? Just a question.

IMPEACH the SCOTUS FIVE
Sign this petition to impeach these justices:

John Paul Stevens
Anthony M. Kennedy
David H. Souter
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen G. Breyer

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/PFROG/index.html


No longer a Republican Smithington
I pretty much agree with you.

I am up front that I line up with liberals on many social issue topics. I disagree with them on some economic issues.

I respect a lot of what I have seen from the CATO institute and libertarians. There are some TH posters and columnists in that category, but I think Coulter attracts more crazies who seem to be looking for a benevolent dictatorship than almost any other political columnist.

"Benevolent dictatorsip" - an oxymoron if there ever was one.

Slacker
I would be careful about calling townhall neocon idiots Conservatives.

The proper conservative viewpoint is that most of these comments are hilarious!

The people who stick up for Habeas are the dictators, while those who refuse to recognize the 700 plus year principle from the Magna Carga are freedom lovers?

Some of these people should have been born in the year 1100. That is where they belong.

And when did sticking up for Habeas become "anti-conservative?"

Since Bush introduced the anti-matter world where down is up and up is down -- that's when.

The current hacks running the Republican Party and the neocon idiots at this web site have turned the party into a massive dung heap.

I have tried to give the 4 dissenters some respect on this. But this was not a close call.

The CATO institute, where true Conservatives and liberarians reside is place where you can go to get the Conservative view -- not here.

Another amazing idiot
Thanks doctorfixit -
Just when you think the other right wing nuts have plumbed the depths of idiocy you suggest we get rid of the supreme court and appellate courts.

Amazing. To avoid requiring the government to show reasonable evidence why they are imprisoning people at GITMO we should take away the rights of real American citizens to appeal any judgement by lower courts.

Wow! We should avoid one "dictatorship" by surrendurring all our rights to the executive branch because we somehow trust that after January Obama will be a wonderful benevolent dictator. Thus he can ram anything he wants thru congress with a democratic majority and noone to oversee what he does is consistent with the Constitution.

Only consolation is only mental retards or totalitarians can be as stupid or malevolent as doctorfixit.

Get Rid of The Supreme Court
Forget about abortion, constitutional rights for Muslim throatcutters, taking away the right to private property, and so on.

The real issue here is that America has become a dictatorship of judges. Get rid of the Supreme Court and the Appellate Courts. Problem solved.

Our judiciary has evolved into a dictatorship that accomplishes marxist goals without any political consequences, against the clear wishes of the majority, and against even the gerrymande-rigged liberal congress.

There are no checks and balances on Anthony Kennedy. We need to get rid of these courts - they serve only to erode our freedoms and to facilitate our enemies, foreign and domestic.

Not all conservatives are liars
Some are just plain stupid: Can anyone utter anything dumber than these two sad sacks. Talk about dumber than a sack of hammers:

Jimbo:
Why can't the Court decide that it is unconsititional--now that our enemy have habeas corpus rights--to use Hellfire Predator missiles on Al Qaeda fighters without judicial review and approval?

MyOpine:
Prisoners are a liability anyway.
They require soldiers to guard them.
Facilities must be provided.
They use food & resources better allotted to troops in the field.

Breathtaking. Do people this stupid have even 2 neurons between their ears to rub together?

No wonder even many of my conservative friends are voting for Obama this year.

More Lies Debunked
Inkling_Revival has slunk back under the woodwork after I exposed his bald faced lies.

Now it is time to exponse one of the biggest lies that conservatives love to tell. They say it so often that these fools even believe it themselves.

It is time for wise old slacker to finally wake you up, though it may be painful. But the good news is that the truth will set you free and allow you to think for yourselves again!! You will finally become a thinking human being instead of a robot spewing the drivel that Coulter feeds you every week.

Here is the BIG LIE: All the people being imprisoned at GITMO are "enemy combatants" who are terribly dangerous to the US and our allies.

The TRUTH: TA-DA! Are you ready for it? Here it is. Nowhere near ALL the prisoners imprisoned over the years at GITMO were enemy combatatants or dangerous to the US. THE GOVERNMENT HAS EVEN ADMITTED THAT! THE GOVERNMENT HAS FREED HUNDREDS OF PRISONERS it had no business holding!!!!!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0425/dailyUpdate.html

Thats right little TH right wing nuts!! By keeping up the pressure on and exposing the secretive and unAmerican behavior of the Bush/Cheney administration in GITMO true red blooded Americans have helped these innocent regain some semblance of a life.

Now, before you jump down my throat with more lies PAY ATTENTION: I did NOT say ALL gitmo prisoners are innocent. I will agree that many are VERY BAD PEOPLE. What the SCOTUS is doing is helping the dimwitted Bush administration to learn how to distinguish between ordinary people and REAL TERRORISTS.

Thus spoke...Sophie
Grand Wizard of Grammer, and Strawman Attacks.
Her commandments are as follows.

-Allways pull a "red herring" when you dont have a point.
-Allways pull a "straw man" when a "red herring" doesnt apply
-Allways restate old talking points, or make "straw man" comments or "red herring" arguments when old talking points dont work.
-Never actually study history or make points based on historical fact.
-Allways make nebulous statements so as not to offend or actually make a real point.
-Everyone shall love, and obey the great Sophie, her grace, magnificence and magnanimousness is sufficent for all to bask in her light.
-Dont question her understanding of the Bush administration. The great Sophie posesses light beyond our understanding wich penetrates the evil thinking of Bush, and his war for oil.
-The last and greatest commandment is to love Sophie as yourself, because if you love Sophie like she loves herself youll be able to hug and kiss terrorists into submission


Just Say No To Over-Reaching Jurists
Just when a person thought it couldn't get any worse! Confiscating homesteads for commercial interests is not an example of imminent domain no matter what the folks in Wonderland (Supreme Court ville) say.

President Bush ought to ignore this Supreme Court ruling. He, after all, is the Commander-in-Chief until Jan. 20, 2009

Now I have a confession to make: the thought also crossed my mind that the practice of taking enemy combatants alive should end. Do the math on that one, Justice Kennedy.

Shopie, sopopia, sophistry, whatever
Self loathing, looking for acceptance, strawman argument making, blithering fool.

Who cares about your Grammer make a point, and back it up.

Cato
In that case, I offer a movie quote more in line with your grasp of history, intellect, and honesty:

BLUTO: "Over! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!?!"

johninoregon Prefers Blood Not Prisoners
johninoregon offers, "And in the case of the Gitmo stain on our honor of our nations, the absurdity of the "automatic guilt" assumption has been nicely highlighted by the exhaustive investigative of the McClatchy News Service."

Try not to invent truths. These are combatants. Our soldiers risk their lives to capture combatants instead of the normal course of killing them in combat. The captured combatants are simply taken off the battlefield until the war can be sorted out or ended.

Instead, the Supreme Court has offered that such a noble deed will not go unpunished and those captured combatants will have an opportunity to return to battle. The new message to our troops is simply do not risk you life to capture a combatant. Well, okay.

Personally, I prefer the more humanitarian effort of risking life to capture combatants. Now, that option is proving to be more risky, thanks to Liberals.

Coultergiest
I just read up on some China brochures for Coulter, she would be in totalitarian heaven.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2002/02/0079066

"Although I performed this procedure nearly a hundred times in the following years, one incident in October 1995 has tortured my conscience to no end. We were sent to Hebei Province to extract kidneys and skin. We arrived one day before the execution of a man sentenced to death for robbery and the murder of a witness. Before the execution, I administered a shot of heparin to the prisoner to prevent blood clotting. A policeman told him it was a tranquilizer to prevent unnecessary suffering during the execution. The criminal responded by giving thanks to the government."

First the execution, then the trial
A good rule of thumb when it comes to political commentators----

f they start their essays with the assertion, direct or implied, that people picked up and thrown in jail are automatically guilty of something, stop reading. Those individuals would have felt quite at home in Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany, but they don't deserve to call themselves Americans.

And in the case of the Gitmo stain on our honor of our nations, the absurdity of the "automatic guilt" assumption has been nicely highlighted by the exhaustive investigative of the McClatchy News Service. (It's reassuring that SOMEONE in the U.S. still does real investigative reporting rather than mimicking Pravda or dishing out celebrity gossip.) Take a look at the following from McClatchy:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38773.html


of the McClatchy

Everybody Loves Sophie's Nonsense
Everybody Loves Sophie offers, "REAL americans are not confortable with the idea of imprisoning innocent people ...."

Well, duh! Nor are they comfortable with burying survivors.

However, combatants are a different matter. When you go to war, the combatants have some choices, kill or capture their counterparts, get killed or captured or escape. Our troops try as best as possible try to capture combatants, sometimes at the risk of their own lives, and keep them off of the battlefield until the war is over.

Now, it seems the Supreme Court has offered that risking ones life to capture combatants may not be worth such a noble deed. I guess the Supreme Court prefers blood, instead. Well, okay with me.

Coultergiest
Of course, Coulter is upset we can't imprison innocent people, forever, without any rights, because she is anti-American and would be better off living in China.

Hal
I just went into your mainframe and unplugged all your circuits.

Time to sing "Daisy, Daisy" and go to sleep.

Test
.

Hal
Yes, 9/11 was just a mirage; it was all just a huge GOP fear event. It's time for you to take your meds, flip off your computer, get into your PJs, and turn off the basement lights. Don't forget to tell you parents good night.Friday will be a new day for you to waste online.

folks
OK to come out now I am off -- that said be well and enjoy

AZPhil
"Not Everyone loves Sophie:
Your reptitive use of the conservatives fear meme makes you sound like Hal. "

Because it is valid. Bush the torturer panicked and now is floundering in inequity. The real bottom line is that all the extreme conservatives shudder in fear....grown ups are getting on with life. The Bush Regime has consistently sold the fear everything line - has it worked? No - time to get rid of the fearful and timid conservatives and let real people fix it. If you folks insist on the WWII analogy - let's elect ONLY democratic candidates

Phil Byler
Reply # 147
"...Hal Donohue seems to think that the Southern Confederacy was far worse than al Qaeda. Really?

"Al Qaeda wants to a 7th century radical Islamist vision of a theocratic society, are quite willing to engage in mass murder of innocents in suicide bombings and despise democracy and modernity."

Al Q is a group of criminals that do not threaten the existance of the US. The next government will put paid to them

"The Southern Confederacy was a white man's constitutional republic that looked to the Founding Fathers as their Founding Fathers and sought to preserve slavery as it had existed in the early 19th century America. "

Not true at all. The depraved south was an oligopoly that sought to maintain power and prevent the advance of civilization and the constitution. In reality it is much closer to Nazi Germany than modern Islam

"This is not a brief for the Southern Confederacy; the preservation of slavery was wrong; but radical Islamism is worse. "

No actually it is not. No state openly supports radical Islam

I defy
If the Supreme Court can decide what we do with enemy combatants caught on the field of battle, then they can decide what we can do to our enemy on the field of battle.

Why can't the Court decide that it is unconsititional--now that our enemy have habeas corpus rights--to use Hellfire Predator missiles on Al Qaeda fighters without judicial review and approval? By the time this is authorized, of course the person will have slipped out of sight. Do judges really feel competent to decide this? I mean, the government can't just kill someone without demonstrating cause and justifiability of such actions first.

I think the 9th Circuit is going to be very busy in the next few years.

sophieisnasty
Your uncle hugo is at it again.
http://www.townhall.com/news/world/2008/06/19/venezuela_up holds_ban_on_candidates

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within”
W. Durant. Socialist.

http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean

Tadpole
Repeat after me...

The US Constitution applies to US Citizens and (supposedly) to a lesser degree foreign nationals on US soil.

That is not true for the Habeas writ.

This ruling does not give the detainees full constitutional rights or treat them as U.S. citizens.


The purpose of a writ of habeas corpus is to cause a government to release a prisoner or show through due process why the prisoner should be held -- period.

dims praise decision
The dims and libs will forever lead their lemming squad with the liberal ideals (supposedly American) of "can't we all get along?" and world peace by re-interpreting the Constitution even after precedent has been established. Al "Clueless" recently based his Oblaba endorsement speech on "Elections matter!" He is absolutely right. If this commie gets in office Ruth Bader will be the Bork of the court.

Cato
It is interesting that you use the name CATO. The Conservative/Libertarian CATO institute argued for Justice Kennedy’s position. I suppose now you want to claim their a liberal front.

I come to this web site and say exactly what there saying over at CATO, and you neocon hacks thinks it liberal.

Pitiful.

Tadpole
What’s interesting is how Scalia and others have made their case by begging the question: that is, they have assumed as true what is to be proven.

Scalia started his opinion with:

"Today, for the first time in our Nation's history, the Court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war."

I find this to be a shocking remark.

How does Mr. Scalia know that they're enemies? That is the whole point of Habeas. It was the whole point of the Supreme Court hearing. How does a bright man begin his argument by avoiding the whole point of the hearing in the first place. I thought the LSAT and taking your law boards were supposed to help you avoid circular arguments.

Cato
Neocon hacks claiming Conservatives are liberals is why the Republican Party is in the mess it is in.

Neocons run the Republican Party foreign policy.

RINOS run the Republican Party domestic policy.

Conservatives run nothing...it's been that way for years.

Lying Inkling_Revival
Amazing how some stupid people think that the louder and more shrill you are when you lie the more people believe you.

Inkling says:

"EVERY communique from the left contains recitations of how innocent these workers are, and how unjust was their detention."

Ok, liar. Provide a link to a SINGLE source from the Obama campaign where they say such things.

You won't find it.

Please note: Even the military has admitted some of the detainees were wrongly imprisoned. A large number of them have been released! By the military, not by the liberals!

Please get a grip on reality!



What Kennedy has done is reversed the wartime burden of proof, applying peacetime, domestic rules of evidence and presumption to foreign battlefields. The clear intent was to make it easier for detainees to go free, by making it harder to prove that they're the enemy -- this, in a combat situation where the enemy is hiding behind civilians and refusing to wear uniforms, in violation of the rules of war. We'll very quickly discover that courtroom requirements for peacetime are simply not possible in a war zone.

R.A.M.
So, how's that BDS working out for ya?

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within”
W. Durant. Socialist.

http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/

http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=956&title=Vietn am_Veterans_Against_McCain&vpkey=62acaf320c

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.htm l
Free Ramos and Compean

Justice Kennedy - American Idol
The problem with this country today is that everyone is involved in striving to be the American Idol and forgetting about the threats to blow America out of the water and force us back into ancient times of a dictatorship if we don't accept a religious belief by worshiping what most Americans consider a real religious American Idol vs. our Judeo-Christian foundation if we continue on the path of political correctness that is destroying a great nation who should stand up and fight back.

Well folks, another day
has come and gone. I'll have to leave all the liberals gnashing their teeth and gnawing the dirt as they drool out their BDS.

Who knows what evil and stupid lurks in the heart of liberals?????

R.A.M. - Largely, you're right
--
But here there's an exception. Says R.A.M.:

"You guys [conservatives] are NOT in favor of the Constitution, The Bill of Rights or limited government in the least. Just because you have the power (however temporary) you want to make the government abuse people for YOUR causes."


This is certainly true of most Republicans (many of whom falsely fancy themselves to be American conservatives, and of "Rockefeller Republicans" most exquisitely, but you fail of recognizing that if there is a legitimate reason for government, that reason is "breaking things and killing people."

To put it more clinically, government is the societal agency to which the individual citizen entrusts the exercise of his right to retaliate against aggression with lethal force.

We try to ensure that this trust will be safeguarded by scrupulously defining and limiting the circumstances in and methods by which the officers of government use this delegated power, and hold them responsible to the citizenry in the discharge of their duties, but "breaking things and killing people" is what they're supposed to do, and - not surprisingly - it's difficult to do that with fine discrimination and perfect accuracy.

The civilian courts of law - such as SCOTUS - are neither equipped nor trained nor experienced nor empowered by law to serve any sort of central or even secondary role in these matters.

SCOTUS and the rest of the courts exist to protect the rights of individuals under their jurisdiction, and cannot arrogate to themselves the authority extend their jurisdiction wherever they friggin' please.

That is a judiciary truly out of control.

The SCOTUS was not even qualified to issue a writ of certiorari on this case, much less decide upon it as Justice Kennedy has uttered in his opinion.

--

Jack:

Our U.S. military academies have spent millions in research and development to know the difference between a hubcap thief and an enemy combatant.

Since Cain slew Able, the good people of the world have been able to tell the difference between them and the bad people. It's called discrimination. It means, "to tell the difference between things".

Try it sometime, you'll be pleasantly surprized.

14th Amend.
I bet Kimberly have never read the 14th Amend. If she had she would understand Bush v. Gore, unless her bias aginst Bush is as strong as the DNC network, oh, I meant (P)MSNBC. Please Kimberly,go to Google and read the Amend. and the decision.

Jack
Rights are indeed inherent to your person, but only because that is the system that we have established.

So we are afford those rights by the grace of living under a system such as ours. Had I used the example of firing that same weapon on the streets of say, Moscow or Peking, I'm sure you would agree that neither one of us would expect to have those rights extended to us.

As to how does one determine whether a captive was an armed combatant? It has been some many years but even at that I don't believe I would have much trouble making that identification. A good general rule of thumb would be, If you're seeing the end of the weapon with the opening in the barrel, the guy pointing it at you is a bad guy.


No longer a Republican Smithington
Repeat after me...

The US Constitution applies to US Citizens and (supposedly) to a lesser degree foreign nationals on US soil.

Habeas is well respected by Conservatives... when it is granted appropriately.

Beowulfe: Good historical perspective
Lincholn was hated in his time for his actions, and was possibly the most polarizing president ever. Not bad things, but leftist appeasment types demagogued him, like they demagogue Bush these days.

Like Lincholn I think history will smile on the Bush presidency. Looser's, complainer's, and quiter's will be forgotten.

To quote Julius Caeser "Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once."

No longer a Republican Smithington:

Nice use of the Bush-hater/Obama-lover lingo.

You have removed all doubt that you are a liberal hack.

Anthony Kennedy is as far from being a conservative as he is from being a competent jurist.