Beyond the Dome

Both Barack Obama and John McCain have promised to take a less expansive view of executive power than President Bush has.

But now, McCain's position in a debate two years ago over enemy combatants may be coming back to haunt him. The Supreme Court today declared as unconstitutional today a provision of a 2006 law that denied enemy combatants the right to challenge their detentions in federal court.

That's significant because McCain was heavily involved in the drafting of the legislation, the Military Commissions Act, in September 2006. It's just that he was focused on a different fight.

McCain and two strong supporters of his presidential bid, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John W. Warner of Virginia, fought hard to force the Bush administration to limit interrogation practices in a way that would comply with the Geneva conventions. That was a struggle in itself, and the McCain group succeeded only after days of intense negotiations with an administration that didn't want to give ground at all.

So when critics started raising constitutional concerns about the language that would deny habeas corpus rights to the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, McCain simply shrugged them off, as if they didn't appreciate all the work he and Graham and Warner had put in on the Geneva conventions.

And when Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania offered an amendment to delete the language and give the detainees the right to file appeals in federal courts, McCain was one of 50 Republicans who voted against it.

"We have done the very best we can. I believe we have come up with a good product," McCain said his floor speech.

Today, the Supreme Court disagreed. The section of the Military Commissions Act that limited the detainees' appeal rights, according to the court, "operates as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ" of habeas corpus.

Obama did speak out against the denial of appeal rights at the time, and he voted for the Specter amendment. Other than the floor speech and his votes, he wasn't really involved. But today, when the Supreme Court validated his stand, it didn't take him long to saddle McCain with the ruling.

"The Court's decision is a rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo - yet another failed policy supported by John McCain," Obama said in a statement. "This is an important step toward reestablishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus."

As for McCain, he made it clear in Boston today that he wasn't happy with the decision. "It obviously concerns me. These are unlawful combatants. They are not American citizens," McCain said. "But it is a decision the Supreme Court has made. Now, we need to move forward."