Posted by
Aaron on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 5:24:59 PM
Today's Washington Post states that "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
said Wednesday the administration is
pursuing legislation that would authorize the same military tribunals
the Supreme Court last month called illegal." I find this opening
sentence of the article highly misleading and inaccurate. The Supreme Court
found that the military tribunals are illegal if they are not approved
by Congress. This sentence makes it sound like Attorney General
Albert Gonzales is defying the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan, though
in reality, they are pursuing the exact channel that the Court
recommends for making the military tribunals constitutional. The
Court invites this as a channel when it states that "absent a more
specific congressional authorization, this Court's task is...to decide
whether Hamdan's military commission is so justified."
Therefore, if the specific congressional authorization was present the
Supreme Court would not have jurisdiction over the issue at hand.