Due Process and Empire's Law: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

The left desperately needed some good news last summer, so it was ready to claim a major victory when the Supreme Court unexpectedly struck down the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. Commentators enthusiastically called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld a "stinging rebuke" to George W. Bush and "a clear affirmation of the rule of law." After wading through the complicated legal issues, most news reports concluded that the Supreme Court had decided that the Bush tribunals were kangaroo courts that violated the Geneva Conventions.