PeTA

Uh oh. The day the author of My 2 Cents has feared has finally come. No, it's not the rapture (although My 2 Cents must think it's coming).

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 today that both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals seized as potential terrorists of "enemy combatants" can challenge their treatment and imprisonment in U.S. courts.

That's right boys and girls, the "animals" held at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay can have their day in court. Get ready for the end of a free society...

Writing the majority opinion of the Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote: the Court has "made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."

Here is the official opinion:

JUSTICE O’CONNOR, joined by THE CHIEF JUSTICE, JUSTICE KENNEDY, and JUSTICE BREYER, concluded that although Congress authorized the detention of combatants in the narrow circumstances alleged in this case, due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decisionmaker.

JUSTICE SOUTER, joined by JUSTICE GINSBURG, concluded that Hamdi’s detention is unauthorized, but joined with the plurality to conclude that on remand Hamdi should have a meaningful opportunity to offer evidence that he is not an enemy combatant.

O’CONNOR, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and KENNEDY and BREYER, JJ., joined. SOUTER, J., filed an opinion concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment, in which GINSBURG, J., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which STEVENS, J., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion.

You can read the complete opinion, including the dissenting opinion of and a amazingly accurate opinion written by Justices Souter and Ginsburg that is "concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment" here.

Who knew that when the founding fathers wrote "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" in the 5th Amendment that they actually meant it. I learn something new every day.