The justices at war

Since World War II, the U.S. Supreme Court has vastly expanded its powers by poking its nose into every aspect of American life very much like it is a legislative body that makes laws, instead of a judicial body that interprets them.

Now the high court thinks it is also commander in chief. In a couple of stunning rulings last week majority justices ruled that terrorist combatants - be they foreign or U.S. citizens - must be treated more as criminal suspects than prisoners of war. The POWs may challenge their detention in federal court - thus opening the floodgates for up to 600 habeas corpus writs for detainees being held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

What a bonanza for lawyers. As The Wall Street Journal points out, the cases could be heard "in 600 or so different courtrooms, with 600 or so different judges demanding 600 or so different standards of what evidence constitutes a threat to the United States."

That's insane. We're all for individual rights and that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty - but that's for criminal cases, not prisoners of war. There's not enough time or money - your money, taxpayer money - to put every POW on trial, nor is it necessary.

People captured fighting for the enemy are held until the war is over, then let go. That's what we did with German and Japanese POWs in World War II. Indeed, old-timers can probably recall POW camps in Aiken County and elsewhere across the South.

We certainly didn't put World War II combatants on trial, nor did we let them go - and for an obvious reason. They could just rejoin the enemy and go back again to shooting at American or allied troops. In fact, this has already happened with some of the Guantanamo detainees who were released to British custody and set them free.

The Supreme Court justices who are granting unprecedented rights to POWs are treading on dangerous ground - undercutting the president's ability to wage war against a fanatical and ruthless enemy who is as dedicated to slaughtering as many Americans as possible, just as the German Nazis slaughtered the Jews.

There's no excuse, or sense, for giving such murderous barbarians a second chance, or reading them their Miranda rights. A majority of justices seem to think they're the collective commander in chief - a commander in chief who doesn't realize the rules are different when the nation is at war; or they may not even realize we're in a war. Americans can only hope and pray that the high court's arrogance doesn't cost more U.S. troops their lives.