Today the US Supreme Court created an entirely new principle under the United States Constitution -- that it applies to enemy combatants captured on the field of battle by the US military, who are not either citizens or residents of the US, and who have not even entered the United States!

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court's liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

Kennedy said federal judges could ultimately order some detainees to be released, but that such orders would depend on security concerns and other circumstances.

The White House had no immediate comment on the ruling. White House press secretary Dana Perino, traveling with President Bush in Rome, said the administration was reviewing the opinion.

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Now here's the problem with the decision.

Never, ever, in the history of the United States have those captured by the military during the course of combat operations been entitled to habeas corpus. Not even during the War of 1812 (when the bulk of the combat took place on US territory) and the Civil War (when those captured were, by the logic of the Union position on the right of states to secede, American citizens) have we allowed such individuals access to civilian courts. Indeed, at the height of WWII the Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatants captured on US territory had no habeas rights in Ex Parte Quirin. Under the Geneva Conventions, enemy soldiers are not entitled to access to the civilian courts, and indeed may not be tried by a civilian court -- but the Supreme Court has miraculously ruled that those who violate the laws of war are entitled to greater protection than those who follow it!

Over at Patterico's Pontifications, we get a wonderful view of the the dissent by Justice Scalia, who positively disassembles the logic of the majority in this case. Most notably, Scalia refused to use the traditional phrase "I respectfully dissent" at the end of his opinion, choosing instead to indicate his profound disagreement with the majority by using the much less collegial "I dissent". The most important line of the dissent, however, is this: "The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today."

Read the opinions here.

H/T Malkin, Hot Air, Flopping Aces

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There are at least some peacemakers in the religion of Peace.

A Muslim Indian seminary which is said to have inspired the Taliban has issued a fatwa against terrorism, insisting that Islam is a religion of peace.

Senior clerics from the 150-year-old Darul Uloom Deoband issued the edict saying they wished to wipe out terrorism. "Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form," said the rector, Habibur Rehman, to the cheers of thousands of students. Many held placards saying "Islam means peace", while others chanted.

"The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace," Mr Rehman added.

The Deoband institute was established in the aftermath of the 1857 uprising against British rule, an uprising that was brutally suppressed by the imperial forces. Highly influential, it controls thousands of smaller seminaries and madrassas around the world, from Britain to Afghanistan.

Of Britain's 1,400 mosques, about 600 are run by Deobandi-affiliated clerics. Seventeen of the UK's 26 Islamic seminaries follow Deobandi teachings, which produce about 80 per cent of all domestically trained Muslim clerics.

Now, if only the terrorists will listen. After all, given the decentralized nature of Islam, there is no Pope to issue decrees that are binding upon all the faithful. In this particular case, I certainly wish there were.

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Looks like the Islamo-censors are back again, out to punish Denmark with acts of terror because of the reprinting of the Muhammad cartoons. After all, there have been repeated threats towards Danish embassies, including this one, since the February reprinting of the inoffensive drawings that offend the sensibilities of those whose brains are addled by extremist Islam.

Now they've tried to blow up ">the Danish Embassy in Pakistan.

At least eight people have been killed in a car bomb attack near the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, according to reports.

About 30 people were wounded. An embassy worker was among the dead and three were hurt, but no Danish citizens died, Danish officials said.

The embassy building and several vehicles outside were damaged.

It was not clear who carried out the attack, as Pakistan's main militant group recently declared a ceasefire.

Pakistan's top Taleban warlord Baitullah Mehsud is in peace talks with the authorities in an attempt to end fighting in the country's north-west.

Some Danish embassies around the world have been threatened since a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad was reprinted in Danish newspapers in February.

The cartoons, deemed offensive to Islam, led to worldwide protests when they were first printed in September 2005.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says suspicion for the attack has fallen on al-Qaeda, as the network's number two Ayman al-Zawahri denounced the cartoons in a recent video.

The Danes remain unbowed!

Per Stig Møller, the foreign minister, blamed the attack on 'dark forces that want to destroy Pakistan's relationship with others'.

'We will not give them that victory,' he said at a press conference in Copenhagen. He that the relationship between the Danish and Pakistani governments is as strong as ever, saying that the bombing 'is also an attack against Pakistan's government and their security people'.

Terror cannot be allowed to win the battle. Freedom of speech and of the pres cannot be abandoned because the most hateful and extreme engage in terrorism and other acts of violence in response.

So to all you jihadi swine out there, here they are -- and you can kiss my big fat bacon grease smeared kaffir ass if you don't like it.

More coverage at Jawa Report, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang

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