Piecing together a few idle bits about the new law the Three Amigos recently caved in on (is there any other way to put it?), and listening to this fairly neutral review of the provisions of the law on NPR the other morning, here is my prediction:
If this thing becomes law (and no, it shouldn't; and even if it does, does that help the GOP?), it will be immediately used in court by the government on Motions to Dismiss in all the cases pending by detainees at Gitmo.
Which is partly* how the Hamdan case got to the Supreme Court. On a Motion to Dismiss filed pursuant to the Detainee Treatment Act. Which is where this entire brouhaha got started. Which means it will probably have an even shorter shelf life than the law that prompted it.
What goes around.....
*Re-reading the Hamdan decision on the motion to dismiss, I realized the Administration and Congress are on very shaky ground with attempts to mess with habeas jurisdiction. The Court didn't take it all that seriously in Hamdan, because it didn't have to. But if this new law passes, I'll be very surprised if the Court doesn't fillet the Yoo position on Presidential power and the GOP position on habeas corpus. So this law may end up doing some good after all, as it may finally put those issues squarely before the Court.
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