Thursday, July 06, 2006

Advisory? I think not.

Endless War on Terror (Phase Two)

For his part, Bush has hinted that he may treat the Supreme Court’s [recent Guantanamo] ruling as more of an advisory opinion than a binding decision.

Responding to a reporter’s question shortly after the court’s decision, Bush rhetorically put quote marks around the word “ruling.”

“Yeah, I – thank you for the question,” Bush said, “on a quote, ‘ruling’ that literally came out in the midst of my meeting with the prime minister [of Japan], and so I haven’t had a chance to fully review the findings of the Supreme Court.”

Between the quote marks around “ruling” and the later reference to the court’s “findings,” Bush conveyed a sense that he didn’t necessarily consider the decision to be binding on his actions.


Now, I'm not sure how much of a sense Bush actually conveyed, but I'll tell you this:

The Court does not issue advisory opinions, and it has refused to do so, when asked. The Court *only* sits "cases and controversies", as the Constitution authorizes it to do.

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