Overreach Overturned

The holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions covers all detentions in this conflict "casts into serious legal doubt the CIA's authority to run its network of secret prisons, not to mention the highly abusive interrogation tactics it has deployed at these 'black' sites. It means that there are no detentions beyond the reach of law and that those guilty of inhumane acts could be criminally liable."

New York Times editorial: "The message of this ruling is that the executive branch cannot continue in its remarkable insistence that because there is a war on terror, it no longer needs to follow established procedures that would subject it to scrutiny by another branch of government. The justices rejected the administration's constant refrain -- made in everything from its 'enemy combatant' policies to its defense of the National Security Agency's domestic spying -- that the authority Congress granted the president to use force after Sept. 11, the exigencies of wartime, or simply the inherent powers of the presidency allow President Bush to trample on existing laws as he sees fit."

Los Angeles Times editorial: "[I]nstead of passing a measure that rubber-stamps the inadequate procedures laid down by the administration, the House and Senate should expeditiously authorize tribunals that satisfy the requirements of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Convention."

Boston Globe editorial: "The message of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, as Justice Stephen Breyer said, is that the president has no blank check in the treatment of prisoners. Instead of trying to get Congress now to give him one, Bush should do what he should have done in 2002: Try suspects fairly in courts, military or civilian, that would show that justice has not fallen victim to terrorism in the United States."

New York Daily News editorial: "What five justices failed to comprehend is that America is at war with an enemy unlike any other we have faced, one that does not abide by the Geneva Conventions or wear uniforms or represent any one nation or limit themselves to killing only opposing forces."

New York Post editorial: "What's next? Miranda warnings and a public defender for Osama himself, if the happy day ever comes when the master murderer is led shackled from the cave he now calls home?"

Newsday editorial: Bush's "stubborn refusal to embrace any role for the courts or Congress in handling detainees in the war on terror has undermined the nation's democratic principles and undercut its standing in the world."

San Francisco Chronicle editorial: "Looks as if the blank check that the Bush administration has been waving around has finally bounced."

Washington Times editorial: "The ruling will significantly undercut the president's ability to protect the United States. We believe that, in the long war against radical Islam that is still in its early stages, this is not a leading indicator but a trailing one -- a last gasp of the pre-September 11 mindset."

David Ignatius , in a Washington Post opinion column: "The Supreme Court reminded the world yesterday that America is a nation of laws that insists on following rules, even as it brings killers to justice. Over time, that will be our most effective anti-terrorist weapon of all."

Eugene Robinson in a Washington Post opinion column: "It seemed almost too much to hope for, but the Supreme Court finally called George W. Bush onto the carpet yesterday and asked him the obvious question: What part of 'rule of law' do you not understand?"

Harvey Silverglate in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "In its decision in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court sent a clear message to the White House on behalf of itself and a Congress reluctant to assert its own powers and obligations: We're all in this war on terror together, and efforts by the president to run it alone will not be tolerated."