When Bad Decisions Go Good

TCS Daily ^ | 8/21/2006 | Michael Rosen

[Jane2005]

When is a bad decision good? When it yields unexpectedly good returns.

On Thursday, in a Detroit federal court, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor issued a disturbing and flawed ruling that essentially struck down the Bush administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP).

The plaintiffs in this case -- including the inscrutable Christopher Hitchens, an otherwise resolute ally of the president's in the war against Islamic fascism; the ACLU; the Council on American Islamic Relations; Greenpeace; the publisher of The American Prospect; an NYU professor; and assorted attorneys -- apparently hand-picked a court and a judge that would deliver the desired result.

But the decision will be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, where the administration is confident of its reversal, and then to the Supreme Court, where, at least in my estimation, the TSP has a better-than-odds chance of success.

[Mikey_1962]

Judge Diggs (who married into the Diggs political dynasty)shows that the ghost of Jimmy Carter past lives on in his liberal nominations to the bench.

[GAB-1955]

This is why the Democrats have been fighting every Bush judicial nomination.