Supremes Bat .500 On The Day

On this first day of the Major League season baseball analogies are in order. Batting .500 will keep you in the major leagues a long time, but the Supreme Court can't afford to have an average that low. Today they announced two major decisions and were 1 for 2. First item, Club Gitmo:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Guantanamo detainees who want to challenge their five-year-long confinement in court, a victory for the Bush administration's legal strategy in its fight against terrorism.

The victory may be only temporary, however. The high court twice previously has extended legal protections to prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. These individuals were seized as potential terrorists following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and only 10 have been charged with a crime.

Not perfect, but it's a start.

In their other at-bat, the Supremes struck out looking:

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency must consider greenhouse gases as pollutants, in a blow to the White House.
"Because greenhouse gases fit well within the Clean Air Act's capacious definition of 'air pollutant' we hold that EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of such gases from new motor vehicles," the court ruled.

Led by Massachusetts, a dozen states along with several US cities and environmental groups went to the courts to determine whether the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions.

"The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized," said judge John Paul Stevens as the ruling was carried by five votes in favor to four against.

The Republican administration of US President George W. Bush has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding greenhouse limits on the nation's industry.

Congratulations - we are all now polluters. Every time you exhale you are adding to the carbon dioxide load in the atmosphere and ruining the planet. Justice Stevens needs to be retired and somebody brought up from the minors...and soon.