U.S. Supreme Court Declares Tribunal System Illegal

My take

Conservatives will treat this as a big loss as if the U.S. was actually using the Tribunals like it was supposed to. The fact is, none of the detainees have been tried using the Tribunal system that the Bush administration set up after Sept. 11th, 2001. About half of the detainees have been released over the past 4 years, and those who remain have been sitting in limbo without charge or trial.

I believe that there should be a place to house detainees and there should be a way to provide them with a trial...but I believe that whatever system is used, it should conform with the law.
The issue here was the creation of the Tribunal system outside of established norms and without explicit support from the U.S. Congress.

Bush, despite his claims of accomplishing something in his "Terror War", has actually done little in terms of convicting terrorists....either through Tribunals or through the civilian courts.

What will happen next?

Sadly, the U.S. Congress will quickly jump to the aid of the White House by creating legislation that will take the illegal Tribunals and make them legal. I have never known a Congress so eager to give up its "Check & Balance" duties. It's not the job of Congress to rubber stamp everything done by a President, especially by making sure that laws are written retroactively to turn illegal activity into legal activity.... molding the law to match policy. The President was supposed to go to the Congress FIRST and get the clearance to use Tribunals.


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