As Al Gore noted in his endorsement of Barack Obama, everyone right down to the family pet understands that elections matter. Obama sealed the Democratic nomination shortly before the Supreme Court’s Boumediene v. Bush ruling on the constitutionality of the horrendous Military Commissions Act of 2006 – that legislative gift to the Bush administration which allowed it to ignore habeas corpus and the rule of law. The Military Commissions Act was an answer to the court’s Hamdan v Rumsfeld ruling which noted that the president did not have a blank check to lock people away indefinitely without access to the courts. We can hope that the Congress does not capitulate to the Executive branch on this topic yet again, but judging from todays wiretapping vote in the House there may be no limit to these craven votes at least through the election season.
The 5-4 Boumediene decision is a perfect illustration of what is at stake in November. John McCain has expressed his preference for justices in the mold of Alito and Roberts. Already now there are four such judges, and that bloc needs only one more like-minded jurist to sign the death warrant for habeas protection and to further sanction the president’s dictatorial powers.
In a recent column, Frank Rich examined the punditry’s fixation on the possible defection of Democratic women to the McCain camp and found it lacking in substance. Nonetheless, a reminder of the stakes are in order here. If elected, John McCain will have the opportunity to create a court majority that favors further expansion of executive power at the expense of the Constitution. Democrats disgusted with the tenor of their party’s nominating contest will do themselves no favors by voting for the supposed “maverick” Republican who is sounding more and more like Bush with each passing day.
