The Bush war court

Dahlia, I don't think you're paranoid at all. I think you're right.

Pretend, for a minute, that I am not completely paranoid and that there is truth behind my sense that we are all missing the real story of the new Supreme Court nominations. My fear is that we are all snoozing through an elaborate plan to pack the court for the Bush administration's war on terror. What if all the obsessive talk about whether candidates are for or against overturning Roe v. Wade is a strategic head feint? What if I am right, and Samuel Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court without ever substantively answering a question about torture, enemy detentions, the rights of foreigners, or civil liberties during wartime?

Democrats -- and Republicans -- who care about such niceties as the Bill of Rights had better start paying attention...and, if there aren't enough Republicans of conscious in the Senate anymore, laying out the case for fillibuster. Because whether it's approving the strip search of a young girl or deciding that unarmed individuals who may be fleeing a crime scene have no constitutional right not to be shot in the back by police officers, Alito has, in Lithwick's words, "never met a search, seizure, warrant, or arrest he couldn't love."

Nixon could not have dreamed of so imperial a presidency if Alito, joining Roberts, another lover of unreined executive power, is confirmed.