What a great way to wake up! CNN is leading with the news of the Supreme Court decision that the Bush Administration may not try terrorism suspects by military tribunal. Why not? Because military tribunals violate the Geneva Conventions.
This is a major blow to the gulag fantasies of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush, and is being characterized as such (at least for now) in the news reports. Of course Scalia, Thomas and Alito dissented.Updates to come.
US court rejects Guantanamo trial
FOX is busily assuring its listeners that dangerous terrorists will not be let to run free. There is no reason for HUGE ALARM. Van Susteren is saying it is important that the power of the President has been, properly, reined in.
Lindsay Graham (R-SC) says that the decision says that congress must write legislation authorizing military commissions (not tribunals) to try terror suspects — and that he, Graham, will get started on that.
The Washington Post seems to have the best, quickest, on-line stories. Start with this:
The Supreme Court today delivered a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration over its plans to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, ruling that the commissions are unconstitutional.
In a 5-3 decision, the court said the trials were not authorized under U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion in the case, called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recused himself from the case