The US Federal Court of Appeals has handed George w. Bush a stinging rejection of his claimed imperial powers. Under the cloak of fighting terrorism the Bush regime has maintained that the president has virtual "anything goes" authority extending to arbitrary, indefinite detention without charge or trial of someone the president proclaims an "enemy combatant."
In a 2-1 split, the appeals court ruled: “To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the President calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution — and the country.”
“We refuse to recognize a claim to power that would so alter the constitutional foundations of our Republic.”
In essence, the court had the courage to uphold the American Consitution against the president. The dissenting judge revealed what he was made of in holding that President Bush, “had the authority to detain al-Marri as an enemy combatant or belligerent” because “he is the type of stealth warrior used by Al Qaeda to perpetrate terrorist acts against the United States.”
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