The Justice Dept. and the Federal Courts are locked in a battle over who can tell whom where to go.
In this case, a judge has asked the DoJ to turn over papers supporting it and the Defense Dept.’s assertion that one of the American citizens captured in Afghanistan ought really be considered an “enemy combatant.” The DoJ has basically defied the request, saying that determination is the prerogative of the Executive Branch and the military.
Important issues ride on this, and, yet, I am sort of heartened by the brouhaha. This is exactly the ongoing checks-and-balances sort of debate that we should be having. When all the branches of government work in harmony, never questioning what the others are doing, it’s the most dangerous time. When all the branches come to a screeching halt squabbling over everything, that’s the second most dangerous. When they simply bump heads over reasonable areas of overlap and public policy, that’s when the system is safest.
So if the Military and the Administration were able to simply label anyone they want as an enemy combatant and deny them any due process or Constitutional protections, and the Judiciary went along with that, it would be a dangerous thing.
On the other hand, if we had judges second-guessing every action taken by the military, we’d have paralysis.
That we have this sort of conflict means, to me, that the system works.