"The Rule Of His Will"

In 1866, in the Supreme Court case Ex Parte Milligan, Attorney General James Speed argued--in trying to justify President Lincoln's imprisonment of hundreds of dissenting citizens--that during wartime, the President should rightfully become "The supreme legislator, supreme judge, and supreme executive."

The Court wisely disagreed with this affront to civil liberties. Chief Justice David Davis wrote:

"The proposition is this: that in a time of war the commander of an armed force...has the power...to suspend all civil rights and their remedies, and subject citizens...to the rule of his will...If true, [our] republican government is a failure, and there is an end of liberty regulated by law."

Some things never change. John Ashcroft certainly agrees with James Speed. Hopefully the Supreme Court will agree with Chief Justice Davis and end the administration's ongoing assault on the Constitution.

(Via Nat Henthoff's fine article in the Village Voice.)