Worst. Decision. Ever?
McCain is making a play for the crazy-ass neocon vote again. On the campaign trail yesterday, he turned up the rhetoric about the Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush that detainees (which I think is an invented word) have the right to Habeas Corpus.
The Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.
Really? Worse than Dred Scott where the Supreme Court ruled that black people could not be citizens, thus couldn’t sue in US courts?
Really? Worse that Plessy v. Ferguson which said that separate but equal was OK?
Really? Worse than Bowers v Hardwick which allowed the government to regulate bedroom behavior?
Senator McCain, if you are going to be outraged, at least try to be outraged at the utter disregard for the constitution that the head of your party has made into an art form. I’m not saying that these people at Gitmo should be set free, but they should have the right to hear what the evidence against them is and have a right to defend themselves. To continue to hold them in a la-la land between POW and criminal is an affront to everything that this country stands for. Give them their day in court, that’s what we do in America.
Honestly, McCain can’t make up his mind on who to court. He’s juggling too many lovers; lovers who consider him an unfaithful bastard who’s not to be trusted.
Not that it matters what he thinks about this decision since he’ll probably change his mind next week.
This has been burining me up. The four justices in the minority are the flat out worst justices in history.
They are so intellectually dishonest that the minority opinion didn’t even render a legal opinion on the case – it simply said that the majority was causing the death of troops in the field.
That we are stuck with these morons for another 30 years is a real tragedy.
“I think is one of the worst decisions”
Not the worst ever, but one of the worst. Distinction w/ a difference.
Jason: “The four justices in the minority are the flat out worst justices in history.”
What is your basis for that? That they don’t agree with you? Even Scalia’s most vehement opponents will concede he’s very very smart.
Duffy – This doesn’t rank in the bottom 50% of decisions. You’ll also note that all of the bad decisions I list are when people are denied rights hat should have been beyond question.
LG, sorta depends on your definition of “people”.
Too sad.
McCain’ s issues with this decision place him squarely in the neo-con camp of trying to recreate the Presidency into some monarchist hybrid. This decision seems to say that the President is not a law unto himself and erasing centuries of Habeas enforcement through federal courts just because it’s easier to not follow the law is not done. This decision is “one of the worst” only is you are a fan of the unitary executive craziness.
What Justice Kennedy wrote here is exactly right –“The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
“Even Scalia’s most vehement opponents will concede he’s very very smart.”
But intellectually dishonest and far too political to be enshrined on SCOTUS. Mr. Original Intent, remember, is the guy who went judicial activist in the Bush-Gore debacle. When asked about it earlier this year at a Princeton speech — one in which he spoke against courts going beyond their constitutional duty — some asked him about the case. A snippet:
“Following the address, Whig-Clio President Molly Alarcon asked Scalia questions submitted in advance by students, including one by sophomore Forest Sebastian regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2000 presidential election to halt the recount of ballots in Florida.
“Oh, get over it. It’s eight years ago,” Scalia said, eliciting laughter and applause from some in the audience.
“We were the laughing stock of the world. The world’s greatest democracy that couldn’t conduct an election,” said Scalia, who maintained the majority of citizens were grateful for the ruling.”
Yes, he maintained the majority of citizens were grateful for the ruling — right after saying courts shouldn’t play the role of legislatures.
So let’s amend that to, he’s very, very smart for a political hack from New Jersey.
Here’s a link to the whole article:
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S20/49/94K50/index.xml?section=featured
Has or does Justice Thomas have an opinion of his own??????????
Wait until the rest of America gets a load of the hyperbolic decaying brain of John McCain.
He’ll say anything unless his handlers tell him otherwise.
“And go fuck yourself San Diego!”
I loved that movie!
It’s a pretty bad decision. You can make a case for Dred Scott being worse, but it was still pretty horrible. Plessy was never overturned, but Brown v Board of Education simply held that while separate but equal was acceptable in theory, separate was never equal in practice. Bowers was a minor decision.
What the Court has done is to say that people who are not American citizens and who are not on American soil are still somehow granted access to the American judicial system, and that the scope of the American judicial system extends beyond our borders; that’s a ridiculous notion.
What is ridiculous is that you are hiding behind the transparently specious argument that our base in Cuba is not American soil.
Also ridiculous not acknowledging that Americans are actually detaining these people and Due Process (even if they are the bad guys) is supposed to be in our civic DNA.
Our base in Cuba isn’t American soil. Only embassies are considered to be the “soil” of the country represented by the embassy; even consulates are not considered foreign soil.
Guantanamo is a naval base on which we have a lease with the Cuban government; it remains Cuban soil. The lease was signed a long time ago, but it’s still in force.
So it’s okay to throw out our ‘American’ values when we’re on foreign soil? Guess all that talk about ‘spreading Democracy’ was just – and still is – a load of crap.
Might I suggest we practice what we preach.
The law is….wherever that American flag flies….is subject to the Consitution, International law and Geneva Conventions. Bush and John Yoo, Rummy, Rice, and their Generals, agents and surrogates thought they could make the argument that it wasnt american soil….its where the flag flies…and it is flyin big on the horrible place called Gitmo. They have already released hundreds…every human being deserves their day in front of a real judge, in a real court, with real defense attorneys, have the evidence against them, and the ability to present their case. These fools picked people up on street corners in those sweeps, and the War Lords were turning over their local enemies, as terrorists…what a black mark on America. Now if we can force the CIA to tell where those “black sites are all over the world”, and have court reviews of all the boys and men locked up in Iraq an Afganistan…mebbe, just mebbe we can begin to crawl out of the darkness of the Bush Blight on the world. (they have a 10 year locked up)…imagine that.
Dana- Our base in Cuba? Yankee Go Home. What do we need another base for? Expand the empire?
Brian: Expansion of the empire would be a good thing!