WSJ: Obama’s Military Tribunals: Another Friday, another bow to Bush’s antiterror legacy. “In any event, Mr. Obama deserves credit for accepting that the civilian courts are largely unsuited for the realities of the war on terror. He has now decided to preserve a tribunal process that will be identical in every material way to the one favored by Dick Cheney — and which, contrary to the narrative that Democrats promulgated for years, will be the fairest and most open war-crimes trials in U.S. history. Meanwhile, friends should keep certain newspaper editors away from sharp objects. Their champion has repudiated them once again.”
Meanwhile, some snark from Prof. Julian Ku: I Can’t Wait to See Neal Katyal’s Argument In Defense of Military Commissions. “The ACLU has vowed to litigate this, no matter what, so there will be at least one argument somewhere. If that’s the case, it would be really cool if the OLC memo on the legality of the new military commissions was drafted by blogger extraordinaire Marty Lederman (whose appointment was hailed as a strong signal that things were really going to change), and (even better), that Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal ends up defending the new commissions in court! If that happens, I really hope someone reminds Neal of his 2007 Slate article.“