"...to uphold the Constitution..."

Ah, that stirring oath of office the president, as well as his cabinet members I think, take. Probably hasn't meant a lot throughout history; presidents often have a desire to subvert the other branches of government to get their way. But, in general, most presidents have tried not to be in obvious violation of that oath. Specifically, most (Andrew Jackson a notable exception), have not openly and willfully defied a Supreme Court decision.

The good news about Bob Roberts...er...John Roberts is that, if confirmed (ha, I made myself laugh just now), the Cheney administration will no longer have to do that.

The Administration has already lost the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi, the other American citizen it attempted to hold without charging. Hamdi was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, but the Supreme Court ruled he could not be held as an “enemy combatant.” Instead of charging him, the US government handed Hamdi over to the Saudi government. (So even winning his case before the US Supreme Court didn’t win Hamdi his freedom. This Administration will ignore or circumvent the Supreme Court along with every other “check” to its desires.) The government clearly didn’t have a case against Hamdi that they felt could stand up in court. It’s fair to infer that the government also can’t have much of a case against Padilla, who they have accused—but not in court—of wanting to explode a “dirty bomb.” If they could get a conviction, they wouldn’t be resisting charging him with a crime.

In oral arguments for the Padilla case, Judge Michael Luttig (whose name was also on the short list of potential Supreme Court nominees) pressed the idea that, in the war on terror, every place is part of the battlefield. Under that logic, Luttig suggested, it doesn’t matter where you are arrested. Anyone can be an “enemy combatant” anywhere. Obviously, this line of reasoning collapses any distinction between capture and arrest, between military and civil law, or between the President as Commander-in-Chief and the President as the chief executive officer in a constitutional government. War is everywhere and everywhen now; we are all soldiers--or traitors--and the President is a full-time Commander-in-Chief. That’s the conservative doctrine, as Karl Rove’s speech about the difference between conservatives and liberals a few weeks ago made clear.

That's not precisely true, of course. Rove.org will still need to replace one more of those whining, "oh, oh, you can't hold an American citizen without trial forever," activist Supreme Court judges before Bush is able to single-handedly wipe out the forces of evil. And trample quaint, old Bill O'Rights.