Samuelson on Obama

Robert Samuelson had a good column this week. He wrote that he is for McCain for the simple reason that with the Democrats likely to hold both houses of Congress, it is important to have a Republican in the White House to check the excesses of a Democratic Congress. I agree with that.

The Supreme Court came out with their Guantanamo decision today, saying that persons detained at Guantanamo have a right to petition federal courts for a writ of habeas corpus. This is a disturbing decision, for the first time holding that combatants detained on foreign soil have a right to petition federal courts for their release. Justice Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts dissented, with Scalia bluntly stating that this decision will cause the death of Americans. Justice Roberts also wrote that this will prolong the proceedings, because it adds a level of review (the district court) between the Combatant Status Review and the federal appeals court. This will harm any persons wrongfully detained (because things will take longer), and harm the country as to persons properly detained, because many dollars and hours will need to be expended to keep them detained.

Dan McLaughlin writes that this will lead the administration to transfer detainees to other countries, and he may be right.