Dahlia Lithwick - another literary crush of mine - (does Michael Kinsley have a knack for finding them, or what?) - listens in when the Supreme Court listens to oral arguments. This time it's about Yaser Esam Hamdi and Jose Padilla, who are detained indefinitely at Camp X-Ray by the US department of defense.
Apparently, Congress in its patriotic fervor right after September 11th passed into law something that gave him the right to:
...use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks.
The administration's attorneys are arguing in front of the Supreme Court that this right exists without limitation; that "necessary and appropriate" is his call to make; that what "he determines" goes. If this is true, president Bush can - until and unless Congress revokes this authorization - use all necessary and appropriate force against anyone anywhere for any reason, as long as he determines it has something to do with terrorism.
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