Habeas Ruling and Election '08

Hugh Hewitt's column at Townhall.com, The United States Supreme Court Versus America: Awarding "The Privilege of Habeas Corpus To Terrorists", addresses the outrageous, irresponsible and narrow 5-4 SCOTUS ruling handed down today. The following is a portion of Justice Scalia's sobering dissent from Hugh's column:

America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. See National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 60–61, 70, 190 (2004). On September 11, 2001, the enemy brought the battle to American soil, killing 2,749 at the Twin Towers in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., and 40 in Pennsylvania. See id., at 552, n. 9. It has threatened further attacks against our homeland; one need only walk about buttressed and barricaded Washington, or board a plane anywhere in the country, to know that the threat is a serious one. Our Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week, 13 of our countrymen in arms were killed.

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.

Like Hugh, I pray that Scalia is wrong, but I have no doubt that he absolutely correct.

Hugh puts much of the blame for this ruling at the feet of Justice Kennedy, and rightly so. Of the five justices in the majority, he was the only one who might have decided differently. The next President will likely have at least 2-3 vacancies to fill on the Supreme Court. Barak Obama has stated that his appointments will be in the mold of Justice Ginsberg. John McCain has repeatedly stated that he will appoint justices like Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. Ginsberg has just decided that foreign terrorists who want to destroy us, our country and our way of life deserve the same Constitutional protections that we, as citizens, have. Roberts and Alito, along with Thomas and Scalia, dissented from that view.

I have never been a McCain fan. Not even close. However, there are two issues that will affect this country for decades to come: the GWOT and the Supreme Court. McCain is absolutely right on both issues. Obama is absolutely wrong on both issues. When it comes to my choice for President this year, I have only one option. And it is not Barak Obama.