Third Branch Takes on Second Bush...

Our offices are closing (just for the break) but I did not want to leave without reading the Second Circuit's opinion in Padilla v. Rumsfeld, holding that the President lacks the authority to order a U.S. Citizen, arrested on U.S. soil unarmed, held indefinitely as an enemy combatant in the Brig.  This case was very troubling because the Solicitor General argued that just by using the magic words "enemy combatant" and making accusations, the President can abrogate an American citizen's right to due process and right to counsel.   That's right, Saddam Hussein gets a speedy trial with counsel to help him defend himself but our own citizen arrested in New York does not.  Our gut tells us- this is monstrous.  Might as well go back to witch-burning times.  Congress recognized this in the non-detention Act, a too-little-too-late response to the incarceration of Japanese-Americans (many from my own street in Redwood City) during World War II.  
So the Court found that Bush doesn't have this inherent power and Congress hasn't given it to him (yet).  The right outcome.  What's disturbing about the Padilla opinion is that the Court seems to suggest that if Congress decided to abrogate due process for American citizens accused of aiding Al Quaeda, that would be just hunky-dory, or at least Constitutional.  Again, monstrous!  But perhaps the Court was just ruling narrowly leaving the issue of whether such hypothetical legislation would be Constitutional for another, much sadder, day.  
I'm off for some enforced vacation.
Dona nobis pacem.