The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Thats what they called the four most right wing justices of the Supreme Court during the depths of the Great Depression who continued to overturn FDR's economic recovery measures with the help of the swing voter, Justice Roberts. Today's four hard right justices, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito, deserve that appellation fully after signing onto Justice Scalia's intemperate dissent in yesterday's 5-4 Guantanamo decision BOUMEDIENE v. BUSH. The difference today is that Justice Kennedy, facing no FDR, has proved himself to have a stronger internal rudder of morality and justice.

Justice Scalia, nakedly invoking the murder victim identity that stands at the heart of governing through crime in America, depicts the five majority Justices as direct threats to the biological survival of their fellow citizens.

On September 11, 2001, the enemy brought the battle to American soil, killing 2,749 at the Twin Towers in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., and 40 in Pennsylvania. See id., at 552, n. 9. It has threatened further attacks against our homeland; one need only walk about buttressed and barricaded Washington, or board a plane anywhere in the country, to know that the threat is a serious one. Our Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week, 13 of our countrymen in arms were killed.

The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.