AP: WH Urges Judges to "Look Beyond the Letter of the Law"
The AP reports "The Bush administration argued Friday that discrepancies between the nation's new terror law and the way it is being carried out should not stall one of the Pentagon's first terrorism trials."
Arguing before the newly formed U.S. Court of Military Commission Review, government attorneys urged judges to look beyond the letter of the law when deciding whether the military undermined its terrorism tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.
The case hinges on a single word: unlawful. Before terror suspects can be prosecuted before military commissions, the law requires they be deemed "unlawful enemy combatants." But Guantanamo Bay tribunals have simply been calling them "enemy combatants."
Lawyers for Omar Khadr argue that's a fatal flaw in the government's case and that Khadr can't go before a military commission. If the three-judge appeals court agrees, it could force the Pentagon to redo tribunals for dozens of detainees.
Is this request consistent with President Bush's judicial philosophy of having judges avoid "legislating from the bench?"
Slate has more on conservative critiques of judicial activism.