Court may challenge Bush

It's beginning to look as though Bush may take a big loss on his detainee policy in a case not being heard by a panel of the Federal Appeals Court in Richmond, Va.

RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 1 — In a series of probing and sometimes testy exchanges with a government lawyer, two of three judges on a federal appeals court panel here indicated Thursday that they might not be prepared to accept the Bush administration’s claim that it has the unilateral power to detain people it calls enemy combatants.

... “What would prevent you from plucking up anyone and saying, ‘You are an enemy combatant?’ ” Judge Roger L. Gregory of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit asked the administration’s lawyer, David B. Salmons.

Good question. That's the same one we've all been asking.

Interestingly, this case is being heard after Congress passed the military tribunals bill that exempts foreigners from habeas corpus, so the Court may be preparing to overturn that element of the bill. Let's hope so.