Patterico's Pontifications

6/29/2006

Hamdan Opinion Today

Filed under: Civil Liberties,Constitutional Law,Court Decisions,Judiciary — Patterico @ 6:00 am



The Hamdan decision, about the legal validity of military commissions at Guantanamo, will be handed down by the Supreme Court this morning. I’ll be on my way to work when that happens, so my commentary will have to wait until the evening, at the earliest. The perils of being a blogger with a day job . . .

Tom Goldstein predicts that Justice Stevens will write the plurality opinion, which means that Justice Kennedy will join him in some sense. If Kennedy writes a separate opinion, it will probably be the governing opinion, and we all know that the limelight-seeking bastard would love that — especially if it gets him some kind words from the New York Times editorial board (which can’t write a coherent editorial, but nevertheless seems to control Justice Kennedy’s vote in high-publicity cases).

Erwin Chemerinsky said on Hewitt’s radio show yesterday that all of this is really just speculation. Let’s hope so. I don’t like the idea of Justice Stevens and Justice Kennedy deciding anything of importance, and certainly not this.

We’ll know soon enough.

UPDATE: Allah has fun speculating about the decision and a possible Stevens retirement.

UPDATE: Per Drudge, the speculation was right. The commissions are illegal, by a 5-3 vote. Again, not surprising. More and more, Kennedy is a reliable vote for whatever the New York Times editorial board wants.

Of all the Justices, I respect him least.

UPDATE 8:59 p.m.: I tried making my way through the opinion today, but I still have a long way to go — and I try not to comment on legal opinions unless I have first read them. From the parts I did read and the coverage I have seen, it appears that, in theory, Congress can still grant the President the authority that he seeks. So depending on what Congress does, the opinion might not be terribly significant after all.

16 Responses to “Hamdan Opinion Today”

  1. Per the AP Stevens wrote the 5-3 opinion which Kennedy joined. They ruled against the Bush administration. I’m still looking for a link for the full opinion.

    CStudent (59bfb8)

  2. Supremes overrule President on Gitmo…

    Via MSNBC:
    WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in creating military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies.
    Justice…

    Sister Toldjah (1466f5)

  3. Supremes overrule President on Gitmo…

    Via MSNBC:
    WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in creating military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies.
    Justice…

    Sister Toldjah (1466f5)

  4. I’m still looking for a link for the full opinion.

    Me too. I’ts not here yet, but should be soon.

    Xrlq (f52b4f)

  5. Wow, and you thought it was tough fighting a war with the media lined up against us. Now add the Supremes to the domestic opposition….

    james23 (9e51ea)

  6. Supreme Court Will Rule On Two More Cases…

    Before finishing up their session, the Supreme Court is set to rule on two more cases:

    The Supreme Court is ending its term with rulings on insanity defenses and trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    The two cases are all that lie betwee…

    Iowa Voice (075f33)

  7. Decline and Fall?…

    In a 5-3 ruling -- which featured 3 separate dissenting opinions --SCOTUS ruled that military tribunals overstep Executive authority, a ruling that could grant de facto Geneva Convention protections to al Qaeda members, though this …

    protein wisdom (c0db44)

  8. Didn’t Reagan appoint Kennedy?

    Gregdn (decad2)

  9. Yup. Poor Justice Kennedy. Did he become more liberal or is it only that the country became more conservative? Don’t forget, Reagan had to get him past a Democratic Senate.

    nk (32c481)

  10. SCOTUSBlog seems to be up and running again and Marty Letterman is ecstatic. He thinks that since the Geneva Convention now applies to Al Qaeda we may now be guilty of war crimes for certain of our interrogation techniques. Unbelievable.

    nk (32c481)

  11. if you think absolutely unlimited executive authority is a good idea, come right on out and say so!

    assistant devil's advocate (151583)

  12. More specific link to Mr. Lederman’s post
    and apologies for misspelling his name above.

    nk (32c481)

  13. […] Hot Air Stop the ACLU has two posts on this. Michelle Malkin It Shines for All Counter Terrorism Blog Captain’s Quarters Iowa Voice Sister Toldjah Patterico’s Pontifications […]

    The Pathetic White House Press Corps at 4thelittleguy.com (876ee0)

  14. Congress needs to pass a resolution that expressly states that there is no treaty of any kind with al Qaeda and directing the President to withdraw from any treaty that implies otherwise.

    Better yet, they can do what they should have done on September 12, declare effing W-A-R on al Qaeda and all that stand with them. Preferably with a “no quarter” provision.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  15. The Supremes…

    Con una decisione a maggioranza (5-3 con l’astensione di John Roberts che si era già espresso pubblicamente sul caso), la Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti ha stabilito che a Guantanamo l’amministrazione Bush ha violato la legge americana e la Convenz…

    The Right Nation (59ce3a)


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