Some small hope from the oddest place

Who'd have thought that we'd be looking to this Supreme Court with some expectation of protecting liberties?

Washington (AP, January 9) - The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear the case of a U.S.-born man captured during fighting in Afghanistan and held without charges, the latest setback for the Bush administration and its assertion of broad new powers to prosecute the war on terrorism.

Over the administration's objections, the court said it will consider the treatment of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a suspected Taliban foot soldier held at a U.S. naval brig in South Carolina. The government calls Hamdi an "enemy combatant" and says he is ineligible for ordinary legal protections.

The Court has already agreed to hear the case of Jose Padilla and to consider the legal rights of those held at Guantanamo Bay. This can't be good news for the White House.

"The court has really drawn a line in the sand," said Deborah Pearlstein, a lawyer and national security specialist at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, which has been a frequent Bush administration critic. "It is recognizing that, yes, the executive has some wartime powers, but they are not unlimited."

I agree. I'm convinced that by taking these cases, the Supreme Court is indicating that it's prepared to put some limits on the sweeping, unquestionable powers the Bushites claim for themselves. If the justices were inclined to accept the White House view, it could have easily passed on this.

I certainly don't think that those limits will be what any civil libertarian worth the name would look for, but they will also be clearly better than what the administration desires.

Keep an eye out for this:

The court could say as soon as Monday whether it will hear an appeal over government secrecy in the detention of hundreds of foreigners picked up in the United States and held immediately after Sept. 11. Civil liberties organizations are seeking names and other details about the detainees, mostly Muslim and Arab men who have since been deported for civil immigration violations.

If the Court also agrees to hear that case, I think we can be certain that Shrub is in for at least something of a slapdown.