Couched in terms of protecting us from “the evil ones,” the Bush administration and Republican Congress think they can get away with anything. What Americans might not have realized about the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is that it effectively eliminated habeas for all of us — since once you are incarcerated it doesn’t matter whether you’re a soccer mom, Catholic nun or a white Anglo-Saxon Boy Scout, you don’t get the chance to prove you’re not a terrorist, or even find out why you’re in jail.

Americans who want their constitutional rights restored can take heart in the fact that Patrick Leahy, the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is from libertarian New England. What we need to worry about, however, is that if and when the Democrats take the legislative measures necessary to do so, they won’t have enough votes to override a presidential veto — and that Dubya has already issued more than 800 “signing statements” reserving the alleged right of the executive branch to selectively enforce or not enforce laws enacted by Congress.