Deference on storm drains but not war powers

Don Surber:

The Supreme Court today halted wartime trials for the terrorists warehoused at Gitmo. This ignored precedent sent in World War II when an American citizen was tried in secret, convicted, executed, and buried upside down.

In his dissent, the best justice on a rather mediocre court, Clarence Thomas, observed, "Those Justices who today disregard the commander-in-chief's wartime decisions, only 10 days ago deferred to the judgment of the Corps of Engineers with regard to a matter much more within the competence of lawyers, upholding that agency's wildly implausible conclusion that a storm drain is a tributary of the United States. It goes without saying that there is much more at stake here than storm drains."

Ah, but the unelected -- never subject to public scrutiny -- justices identify more with the military cadre than they do the president of the United States, who was re-elected by the first presidential majority in 16 years.

God save, Justice Thomas. The rest can pound salt.

...

I am sure Justice Scalia agrred with Justice Thomas, and Roberts probably would have too since he wrote the appealate decision that was being overturned. This is probably one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in my life time. Congress and the President can probably work around the tribunal question although they should never have been put to that task. As for the Fenva Convention part of it, Congress and the President should just assume that the legislation last year banning torture already takes care of that issue. If they can do that, the damage from this atrocious decision may be minimal.