It's A Reflex

Other people have commented on the Padilla case in greater depth than I can manage. I'm not going to say I completely disagree with the ruling - which says that US civilians arrested on US soil are subject to constitutional protections - but then, I'm no lawyer.

The only thing I have to add is that the Pioneer Press' first edition headline for this story is "Courts Hand Bush Setback in War On Terror".

Maybe it was a first-edition bobble - the online headine is "Bush handed setbacks in 2 terror rulings" - but it shows how ingrained the left's point of view is at the major newspapers. It wasn't a setback in the "War on Terror", merely a legal ruling that forced a case against an alleged traitor into a civilian, rather than military, legal system.

Not a defeat.