Spencer Ackerman flags Robert Gibbs denying that there will be an executive order from the White House reasserting the "inherent" authority of the president to detain terrorist suspects indefinitely:
I think the President addressed the notion and the very tough issue that the administration is likely to face, and that is that we are going to have detainees that will be hard to prosecute and too dangerous to release. And while the administration is considering a series of options, a range of options, none relies on legal theories that we have the inherent authority to detain people. And this will not be pursued in that manner.
I'm inclined to believe this. While the adminsitration has continued a number of Bush policies, a reoccuring theme is that the powers asserted are drawn from Congress, rather than from the "inherent" authority of the executive branch. The thing is, Congress doesn't actually seem very interested in curbing that authority, particularly in the case of indefinite detention. Which, when you think about it, is actually somewhat strange: no matter what your position is on the issue, creating an alternate legal framework for indefinitely detaining people not captured in a zone of military combat, instead of trying them in court, is a radical act. But you wouldn't know if from the complete lack of controversy, either in Congress or among high-profile public intellectuals.
-- A. Serwer
