Jeff & Konnor's Blog

In case you didn’t have the opportunity to read the Supreme Court’s decision in Hamden v. Rumsfeld, allow us to summarize:

Congress has the power to make laws concerning military justice. Military trials for Guantanamo detainees are specifically not allowed under current law. The President, despite what he may think, must adhere to the law. As Justice Kennedy put it, Congress’s authorization for the President to use force against those who committed terrorist attacks against us was not a “blank check” for the President to do whatever he wants in the name of fighting terrorism. All the President has to do, however, is ask Congress to change the law so that military tribunals are legal.

Shockingly simple. The President can’t make laws. We learned that in high school government class.

Of course, the chronically idiotic Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent that the decision “sorely hampers the President's ability to confront and defeat a deadly enemy.” Why? Because he has to consult with Congress regarding the method of putting military prisoners on trial? The President has the authority to order the military to fight those that he believes are involved in terrorism. He has the authority to detain those who are captured. How are we “sorely hampering” him by insisting that he either follow the rules of military justice that have been established, or ask Congress to change the rules?

We’ve read a number of opinions disagreeing with the Supreme Court’s decision. Most of them ridicule supporters for “caring more about terrorists’ rights than about American solders.” This misses the point completely. Congress can decide tomorrow that military tribunals are acceptable. Heck, Congress can decide tomorrow that terrorists have no rights whatsoever, that the Geneva conventions do not apply, and the prisoners can all be tortured to death. But that’s for Congress to decide, not the President.