Yoo Serious? Yes. Still.

In a Wall Street Journal editorial today, controversial former Bush Justice Dept. Official John Yoo (remember the torture memos?) reiterated what everyone else has recognized ever since Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 last month: the law imperializes the presidency and emasculates the courts. But of course Yoo -- the hardest of the hard-line aggrandizers of presidential power -- thinks this is grand. Needless to say, we don't. Regurgitating the nauseating mantra of the far right, Yoo also says the MCA was brought about by an act of "judicial supremacy" in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. It's surely true that Hamdan put the ball in Congress' court. But enforcing checks and balances and the rule of law counts as "judicial supremacy"? Sure it's always been that way for the Dick Cheneys of the world. But we always thought that's what the framers put the courts there for.