Bush spanked by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, said the Chimperor….El Commandante….the President does not have the power to order military tribunals for detainees held in Guantanamo.

With Chief Justice Roberts abstaining, and Justice Kennedy siding with the majority, Bush was given a firm butt-whoopin’ and told that his power to decide  – because he is The Decider – isn’t what he thought it was.

From The New York Times: [emphasis mine]

The Supreme Court on Thursday repudiated the Bush administration’s plan to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law. 

“The executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction,” Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the 5-to-3 majority, said at the end of a 73-page opinion that in sober tones shredded each of the administration’s arguments, including the assertion that Congress had stripped the court of jurisdiction to decide the case.

A principal flaw the court found in the commissions was that the president had established them without Congressional authorization.

The decision was such a sweeping and categorical defeat for the administration that it left human rights lawyers who have pressed this and other cases on behalf of Guantánamo detainees almost speechless with surprise and delight, using words like “fantastic,” “amazing” and “remarkable.”

That’s the good news. Here’s the bad:

President Bush said he planned to work with Congress to “find a way forward,” and there were signs of bipartisan interest on Capitol Hill in devising legislation that would authorize revamped commissions intended to withstand judicial scrutiny.

[snip]

Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill immediately and said his committee would hold a hearing on July 11, as soon as Congress returned from the July 4 recess. Mr. Specter said the administration had resisted his effort to propose similar legislation as early as 2002.

Two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jon Kyl of Arizona, said in a joint statement that they were “disappointed” but that “we believe the problems cited by the court can and should be fixed.”

“Working together, Congress and the administration can draft a fair, suitable and constitutionally permissible tribunal statute,” they added.

Uh-oh…I see where that’s going. Bushie’s going to head over to his buddies at the Rubber-Stamp Republican Congress and get them to write him a law that lets him to do what he’s already been doing. Kind of similar to what Arlen’s trying to do with the whole “spying on Americans” thingiemabobber.

They’ll just retroactively make it legal to ignore the Constitution and to break laws.

Then, they’ll make even more laws that say it’s okay to do things that aren’t legal as long as the The Decider decides it’s necessary.

Then, they’ll make a law that says they don’t need to make laws because The Decider doesn’t need laws written down. (not like he could read them anyway.)

Pretty soon, they’ll be all set to sign a bill that dissolves Congress and gives Chimpy McFlightSuit all the power of the land to do whatever he wants, whenever he want, to whomever he wants… in order to – naturally – protect Americans from the “terra-rists.”

Again, I suggest some in Congress do some reading up on the fate of the Reichstag in 1930s Germany….