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It thus verged on the breathtaking when Justice Scalia wrote in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld: “Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis. ... Whatever the general merits of the view that war silences law or modulates its voice, that view has no place in the interpretation and application of a Constitution designed precisely to confront war and, in a manner that accords with democratic principles, to accommodate it.”
Justice Scalia

It may be that during wartime emergencies it is in the nature of the presidency to focus on accomplishing political and strategic ends without too much regard for any resulting breaches in the shield which the Constitution gives to civil liberties. Perhaps it may be best that the courts reserve their serious consideration of questions of civil liberties which arise during wartime until after the war is over. At any rate, these are questions worth thinking about not only in wartime but in peacetime as well.
These William H. Rehnquist remarks were delivered at the Indiana University School of Law--Bloomington on Monday, October 28, 1996.

I know that Rehnquist and Scalia were on the same page in 1996 concerning Executive power and War but the fact that the WOT looks like it could be a generational war that may well last decades, Scalia may be re-thinking how much protection the Bill of Rights affords during wartime...The Patriot Act disturbs many conservatives because of its weaking of the 4th Amendment constitutional protections. And no conservative can claim with a straight face that the Bush Administration has not garnered more power to the Executive then any President since Lincoln and FDR.

And that is not a good thing.

What will Democrats use all these new powers for.

Who might a democrat President such as Hilliary Clinton declare a terrorist or "enemy combatant" with all that such a declaration now means to an individuals civil liberties.

I know that Rehnquist and Scalia were on the same page in 1996 concerning Executive power and War but the fact that the WOT looks like it could be a generational war that may well last decades, Scalia may be re-thinking how much protection the Bill of Rights affords during wartime...

Note the date on the tent 1905, 15 years after Wounded Knee ended our Hundred Years' War.
I think it was thought out some time ago.
What was good for Geronimo is good for Al-Qaeda.

"You go, Scalia!"