Boumediene!

I was in court all day today and so I did not find out that the Supreme Court had ruled in Boume­di­ene v. Bush today. [Note: PDF link.]

The Court explic­itly held that MCA § 7 (the jurisdiction-​​stripping amend­ment) was within Con­gress’ power to enact as a mat­ter of Arti­cle III (but not within Con­gress’ power to enact as a mat­ter of the Sus­pen­sion Clause).

I’ve said all along that this ques­tion, which the Court calls “a thresh­old mat­ter” was more sig­nif­i­cant in the long run and from a separation-​​of-​​powers stand­point than any rul­ing on the much more pop­u­lar and eagerly reported habeas issue.

I haven’t read the whole 134-​​page opin­ion yet (or even just the sec­tion on the jurisdiction-​​stripping ques­tion), but when I do, I will hap­pily give you my analy­sis. Whether you want it or not!

Comment are closed.