Limited to Nothing

I mentioned it briefly in an earlier Posner post, but as an addendum to Matt’s point it’s worth spelling it out clearly. Apologists for Bush’s program of abitrary executive power that includes the power to torture assure us that this power will be limited to terrorists. I don’t think that’s much of a defense. But more to the point, once you’ve effectively stripped any judicial oversight from the process, the arbitrary power is not limited to “terrorists” at all. It may be applied to terrorists, but it may also be applied to people the executive simply declares to be terrorists but aren’t, like Maher Arar. With meaningful judicial oversight stripped, the executive’s power is simply not bound to actual cases of national security, and to the extent that arguments (like Posner’s) rely on assertions that this arbitrary power can be neatly cabined they should be rejected, at least assuming that this amendment won’t pass. Unless someone can explain how torturing innocent people for months serves either American values or American interests.