All of the Above

"Today the court strikes down as inadequate the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants. The political branches crafted these procedures amidst an ongoing military conflict, after much careful investigation and thorough debate. The court rejects them today out of hand, without bothering to say what due process rights the detainees possess, without explaining how the statute fails to vindicate those rights, and before a single petitioner has even attempted to avail himself of the law's operation. And to what effect? The majority merely replaces a review system designed by the people's representatives with a set of shapeless procedures to be defined by federal courts at some future date. "The critical threshold question in these cases, prior to any inquiry about the writ's scope, is whether the system the political branches designed protects whatever rights the detainees may possess. If so, there is no need for any additional process, whether called 'habeas' or something else."

-- Chief Justice John Roberts, in dissent of the Supreme Court decision granting constitutional rights to enemy combatants.

"The game of bait-and-switch that today's opinion plays upon the nation's commander in chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed. That consequence would be tolerable if necessary to preserve a time-honored legal principle vital to our constitutional republic. But it is this court's blatant abandonment of such a principle that produces the decision today.

Today the court warps our Constitution in a way that goes beyond the narrow issue of the reach of the Suspension Clause. ... It blatantly misdescribes important precedents ... It breaks a chain of precedent as old as the common law that prohibits judicial inquiry into detentions of aliens abroad ... And, most tragically, it sets our military commanders the impossible task of proving to a civilian court, under whatever standards this court devises in the future, that evidence supports the confinement of each and every enemy prisoner. The nation will live to regret what the court has done today."

-- Justice Antonin Scalia, also dissenting.

"To suggest that foreign terrorists, who have never set foot in this country and respect no civilized laws should enjoy the same rights under our Constitution as U.S. citizens must make America's founding fathers turn over in their graves."

-- American Legion National Commander Martin "Marty" Conatser on the Supreme Court's decision.



American Legion to Supreme Court: Terrorists Ruling Endangers U.S. Military

INDIANAPOLIS, June 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The nation's leading veterans organization reacted to today's Supreme Court ruling that foreign terrorists have U.S. constitutional rights. The ruling came as the result of a challenge by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who want hearings in U.S. civilian courts.

"To suggest that foreign terrorists, who have never set foot in this country and respect no civilized laws should enjoy the same rights under our Constitution as U.S. citizens," American Legion National Commander Marty Conatser said of today's 5-4 ruling, "must make America's founding fathers turn over in their graves."

Conatser pointed out that The American Legion has sent delegations to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Two American Legion past national commanders have visited Camp Delta. They found that the detainees were humanely treated, well-fed and provided with medical care that surpasses what many veterans receive. We currently have a distinguished Legionnaire viewing hearings down at Guantanamo. As the deputy commanding general of Guantanamo told our Washington Legislative Conference, if the situation were reversed these terrorists would define mercy as a knife blade on the back of the neck instead of the front."

Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the ruling. He wrote that the United States enacted "the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants." Justice Antonin Scalia joined the dissent, writing that the majority's decision "will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."

"The Supreme Court has made its ruling," Conatser said. "It seems that terrorists taken on foreign battlefields will now be entitled to lawyers at taxpayers' expense and all the other rights that American citizens enjoy. It would have been wonderful if the terrorists had treated Matt Maupin, the U.S. soldier captured and brutally murdered in Iraq, with the same respect. In fact, one of the men on trial, Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed is not only the alleged mastermind of 9/11 but is widely believed to have personally beheaded journalist Daniel Pearl."

Conatser said that The American Legion will look at various ways to protect America within the confines of the latest Supreme Court decision.

With a current membership of 2.7-million wartime veterans, The American Legion, www.legion.org, was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and patriotic youth programs. Legionnaires work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.

When the Supreme Court reaches decisions they don't like on a 5-4 vote, the "progressive" media are quick to label them "split" and "bitter." Whereas decisions that are detrimental to the very fabric of America, such as the one the liberal wing of the SCOTUS reached yesterday are hailed as a "victory" against the Bush administration.

Paranoia? Schizophrenia? Treason? All of the Above?