I still stand by my assessment from last week, that the majority in the Boumediene case screwed the pooch in holding that detained illegal combatants have habeas corpus rights in American civilian courts. National Review's Andrew McCarthy, in an article that must be read by everyone who wonders where we go from here (impeachment of the five justice majority not being practical), also makes a pointed observation as to why the decision is fundamentally nonsensical.

Now the Court has decided that the combatants have constitutional habeas rights. If you can follow this, the bloc of liberal justices reasons that the framers designed our fundamental law to empower enemies of the American people to use the American people’s courts as a weapon to compel the American people’s commander-in-chief to justify his actions during a war overwhelmingly authorized by the American people’s elected representatives . . . even as those enemies continue killing Americans.

In other words, despite the clear establishment of a Constitutional framework in which Congress authorizes military action and the President is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, the judicial branch (delegated no role in the war-making function of government) is now somehow on top of the heap when it comes to such matters AND a powerful weapon in the hands of America's enemies, giving that enemy the power to manipulate the constitutional system of checks-and-balances to its own military and political advantage.

I heartily endorse the suggestions made by Andrew McCarthy in the article -- and add to it the suggestion that Congress exercise its authority under Article III Section 2 of the Constitution to strip the Supreme Court of its appellate jurisdiction in any and all cases related to the war powers and detention of enemy combatants.