Dim Justice

Can somebody explain to me why everyone is assuming that Bush is going to be defeated in the Supreme Court on the Guantanamo and Padilla cases? The Guardian had this similar story.

Common sense would tell you that the court would reject the administration in light of all the information that’s come out in the press regarding torture, assertions of presidential infallibility and the like. (One would think that the court would want to guard it’s own turf at the very least.)

But common sense also would have said that the court would stay out of electoral matters to preserve its own reputation and they didn’t. On that day, I lost all faith that the court could be relied upon to behave in a rational, consistent or even self-serving way.

I suspect that this has more to do with Sandra Day O’Connor than anyone else who seems to make things up as she goes along. She may very well vote against Bush on thses cases. But since she has no intellectual consistency, she may just as easily vote against him. Which is why I ask why anyone makes any assumptions about this court? The swing vote is completely incomprehensible.

Update: Lawyers, Guns and Money weighs in.

Any other lawyers, court watchers or dilettantes care to?