Federal Courts
On Linda Greenhouse's Op-Ed: "Lessons Maybe Learned"
Linda Greenhouse in her New York Times article titled Lessons Maybe Learned reminds us that the federal courts still exist, despite the weakening of Constitutional protections for privacy, free speech, and due process, and against cruel and unusual punishment since 9/11. She opens her opinion piece by relating her sentiment of the almost invisibility of judicial branch in the post-9/11 America. Of course this is an overstatement intended to catch the attention of readers, because numerous cases have been heard and decided, such as challenges to military tribunals, indefinite detentions of 'enemy combatants', and elements of the PATRIOT Act. Yet, Greenhouse seems to have captured the arguably pervasive feeling that the federal courts have been effectively sitting on the sidelines while the executive branch and the Congress set domestic...
Greenhouse attempts to remind us that the federal courts have acted primarily as a check on the obvious power grabs that Congress and the executive branch have engaged in during the post-9/11 period. She gives several important examples, such as protecting its
jurisdiction in Guantanamo Bay, holding the
Bush Administration's unilateral establishment of military commissions unconstitutional, and reestablishing at least some semblance of due process for enemy combatants.
Greenhouse reminds us that the federal judiciary did not succumb to the post-9/11 sentiment that seemed to sweep the nation into a unified uber-patriotic voice calling for a War on Al-Qaeda and eventually Saddam Hussein, despite indications that the power-brokers in Washington viewed public sentiment as a perpetual Constitutional 'get out of jail free' card for the executive branch. In support of this…
