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--A. Serwer
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli (08-368), which will determine whether or not the president has the power to seize and detain people indefinitely without charging them with a specific crime. Lyle Denniston elaborates:
In some ways, the al-Marri case could be the most important of a series of Supreme Court rulings since 2004 growing out of the Bush Administration’s global response to terrorism. That is because the power at issue not only could affect aliens in the country, but U.S. citizens, as well. It is at least as much a direct challenge to presidential authority as was the Court’s 2006 decision overturning the presidentially ordered military tribunal system for trying war crimes cases.The case won't be heard until Obama takes office, at which point he could simply concede that the president does not have the power to detain people indefinitely without charging them with a crime and drop the case. Let's hope he does.
--A. Serwer
