On Friday the Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in al-Marri v Spagone (see Certiorari order). By vacating the 4th Circuit’s ruling the potential for its future use as a legal precedent is eliminated. In this way the legal authority of the executive to indefinately detain without trial individuals legally resident in the United States is considerably weakened.
Comment by William R. Cumming
March 10, 2009 @ 10:33 am
It will be interesting to see what legal and policy analyst’s of the Judiciary Branch of Government’s first decade after 9/11/01 agree has been the result. The problem that I see is that the lack of timeliness in supervising the rights of plaintiffs has permanently damaged the judiciary. Despite what many lawyers (in particular those that have to rely on fees) the client is NOT always right. Do we have a seperation of powers or not? The Judiciary’s de minimus support for what could logically have been forseen by the growth of sub-state terrorism probably reflects the fact that it was only with the publication of the DYCUS/RAVEN_HANSEN text on national security in the late 80′s that National Security was moved out of isolation as the study domain of international lawyers and policy theorist to see that the National Security State erected post WWII had huge implications for domestic policy and the future of democracy in what is still the oldest and richest democracy. By the way how many of the current members of SCOTUS served in the military?
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