Last Thursday, the Supreme Court voted to protect the habeas corpus rights of non-citizen prisoners held by the United States government. I think it was a solid decision–they’ve got seven centuries of political and legal history backing up that supporting basic due process = good and democratic.
John “Maverick” McCain not only disagreed with the decision, he called it
one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.
Whoa! Let’s put things into perspective, shall we? What kind of bad crowd might Boumediene v. Bush be running around with?
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which I am sure tops everyone’s list as the worst decision ever, outside of the KKK and neo-nazi groups.
Bradwell v. Illinois (1872), which an 8-1 ruling that it was constitutional for the state to deny a qualified woman’s right to practice law on the basis of her gender.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1898), which became the legal foundation for a half-century of “separate but equal” segregation.
Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), which ruled that Congress did not have the power to prohibit the interstate commerce of products manufactured by children under fourteen
Buck v. Bell (1927), which supported the power of the state to forcefully sterilize the mentally retarded
Korematsu v. United States (1944), which upheld the constitutionality of imprisoning Americans solely on the basis of their Japanese heritage
Of course, “bad” is entirely subjective. I’m not sure how many of these McCain might include on his own personal “worst e-var SCotUS decision list,” but you can be sure that Roe v. Wade is on it.
What bothers me is that four Supreme Court Justices, including the sometimes level-headed Chief Justice, cast dissenting votes, supporting the right of the U.S. to take years of people’s lives away in a system that has locked up a number of *proven* non-enemy, non-combatants. And half of U.S. voters seem ready to elect a president who, through his choice of nominees, could tip the balance against habeas corpus and overturn Roe v. Wade.
Electing this man president, my friends, would be a more likely candidate for “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”
5 responses so far ↓
1 Elaine // Jun 17, 2008 at 9:05 am
Exactly.
By the way, I came across an interesting post on Huffingtonpost.com which seems to indicate that McCain might well be as big a screw-up as, generally speaking and in very similar ways to, Dubya. I can’t vouch for the veracity of the post, but none of it would surprise me much were it to turn out to be true.
I don’t know how to post links in comments, but the post is titled “McCain’s Secret, Questionable Record” and can be found at
Frankly, the idea of McCain as president scares the crap out of me.
2 Lessie // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:17 am
I was so excited when this ruling came. I can just hear my parents now, though (especially my mom, “The Lord is comin’, this is the worst thing ever!”). But anyway, I was glad because even though some of the people detained in these places may very well be dangerous to our security, some of them may not be, and regardless of their danger, they deserve a trial and knowledge of their charges. To me, that should be just a basic right regardless of what country one is from. I hardly think that this ruling indicates that the Supreme Court wants to let all dangerous criminals off scott-free. To conflate this ruling with such drivel is ridiculous (but seems to be what some conservatives are implying).
3 JohnR // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:18 am
Probably not the same one you’re thinking of, but this HuffPo piece compares McCain to Bob Dole.
4 JohnR // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:25 am
Lessie, thanks for capturing something that I wanted to fit in the post, but couldn’t quite get it in there. Habeas corpus really shouldn’t be a left v. right issue (FDR was one of the biggest offenders), but I’m baffled that so many conservatives are willing to convict w/o due process. The current administration and far right pundits always describe Gitmo detainees as dangerous enemy combatants; appropriate detention review hearings would help to verify that this is the case.
5 wren // Jun 21, 2008 at 6:11 am
I was so surprised and happy with this decision. As for McCain… we used to call this guy a maverick…? Why am I feeling Romney is becoming more likely as a running mate?
McCain’s response is the very sort of thing that is making us LESS safe. Ugh! I swear I sometimes wonder if the right wants to stay at war forever. One only needs to take psych or soc 101 to get that when you piss people off and treat them with disrespect, they will hate you. Hate breeds resentment breeds terror. Duh.
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