Ahead of the curve

The U.S. Supreme Court granted review in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a case brought by a detainee at Guantanimo Bay challenging the military tribunal process and other issues. As you will recall, this very blog interviewed Mr. Hamdan’s lead civilian counsel Neal Katyal, around a month ago.
Professor Katyal was kind enough to respond to my request that he answer some follow-up questions, by noting that, at this point, he is telling all media sources, big dogs and talking dogs alike, that he has no comment at this time (a decision I certainly respect.) It looks like the case will be argued around March, when, very likely, Judge Sam Alito may well be on the Court.
No matter. On this election night where the mayor of my city (who had no problem turning large portions of Manhattan into a police state in August and September of last year) was handily reelected, though by a far smaller margin than he thought, and a respected senator running against an apparent outright criminal in our neighboring state, managed to pull it out… it might be a good time to take a broader look at the actions of the Republic. The Hamdan case will at least force someone to take a look.
Nothing much at stake, except, oh, separation of powers and whether or not this nation is bound to follow its own treaties. Nothing much at all.