Sometimes there’s hope

After reading, in Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side, about the legal smoke screen John Yoo, David Addington, et al. puffed out of various obscene orifices to provide cover for the Bush administration to indulge in behaviors that any sane person could see were not only illegal and unconstitutional, but also morally reprehensible, it is heartening to read this report in the day’s NYTimes:

WASHINGTON � A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush administration to release 17 detainees at Guant�namo Bay by the end of the week, the first such ruling in nearly seven years of legal disputes over the administration�s detention policies.

The judge, Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court, ordered that the 17 men be brought to his courtroom on Friday from the prison at Guant�namo Bay, Cuba, where they have been held since 2002. He indicated that he would release the men, members of the restive Uighur Muslim minority in western China, into the care of supporters in the United States, initially in the Washington area.

�I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention,� Judge Urbina said.

Amen! Amen! and again Amen!

It’s called habeas corpus. Produce the defendants.