Memo To Anti-Terrorism File

Creating a new court system from scratch is not a good "way to provide swift and severe punishment to foreign terrorists."

The Bush administration system of lawyering also operates in that non-reality based dimension that ordinary lawyers never seem to be able to call upon (emphasis added):

In parallel litigation involving Mr. Khadr's detention as an "enemy combatant" -- although not the specific war-crimes charges before the commission -- U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green found that a 2004 Supreme Court opinion extended the Due Process clause to Guantanamo. Mr. Ahmad said under normal legal practice, when a higher court has decided an issue involving the same parties and facts, the loser may not reargue the matter. Thus, he contended, the military commission was bound to grant those protections to Mr. Khadr.

The trial prosecutor, a Marine major whose name can't be disclosed under Pentagon rules, hadn't cited Judge Green's opinion in his brief. The prosecutor said he ignored the ruling because he considered it wrong and expected it to be overruled in the government's pending appeal.

I have never found the whole ignoring the judge's ruling approach very effective, but apparently this works in Bush's personal legal system in Guantanamo, which he created without any input from the legislative or judicial branches.