Justice and Gitmo

ACCORDING TO Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley, "The Supreme Court follows th' ilection returns." The court may also follow the proceedings of Congress, which has yet to enact legislation restoring habeas corpus rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. There, Congress' indolence appears to have roused the court to action, a welcome development in a complex struggle among the branches of our federal government to safeguard the rights we trumpet to the world. The fates of the detainees hang on that debate, but the outcome also will determine whether America's most basic freedoms withstand the combined pressures of the war on terror and the neglect of the president responsible for protecting them.

July 8, 2007