Congress Decides to Stop Being So Damn Lazy

The Senate yesterday took a constitutionally required step and set limits on the manner in which “enemy combatants” et al can be detained and interrogated.

This is fairly significant. As this post on The Volokh Conspiracy notes, the Constitution gives Congress the power to make Rules concerning captures on Land and Water. The lawsuits and hand-wringing over the Bush Administration’s handling of detainees could have been avoided had Congress exercised its power to set rules for the treatment of “captures on Land,” rather than abdicating that authority to the President. The White House has argued it will veto the rules; I’ve read them, but haven’t really pondered them, and I don’t know why the rules are so onerous to the White House (they passed the GOP controlled Senate 90-9), except that they are rules and indicate a heretofore dormant sense of Congressional independence from the White House. This is scary to Bush, who would much rather be King than President anyway. Eight comments down is a comment by Robert Lyman, who includes the full text of the amendment, so you can read the rules yourself if you like to see how horrifyingly complex they are (they’re not).

This story will be underreported. I’d not have heard about it but for a late afternoon scan of Volokh before I left work. It could be something to watch, however.