We Are Not In A Dictatorship

The US Supreme Court voted:

• 8-1 (Thomas dissenting) that 'enemy combatants' have the right to have the evidence requiring their detention reviewed by courts.
  
• 6-3 (Rehnquist, Thomas and Scalia dissenting) that the courts which have jurisdiction to review the cases of enemy combatants are the Federal courts.
  
• 5-4, that Jose Padilla was 'forum shopping' in bringing his habeas corpus case to the Southern District of New York, for being held in a brig in Charleston, SC (he is supposed to bring his petition to Federal court in SC).
  

The first two rulings are significant -- they say that, contrary to what Bush has asserted, the Executive Branch cannot hold prisoners without judicial review. All 600 prisoners at Guantanamo bay can, as a result, file in our Federal Court system for review of their status as an enemy combatant, forcing the Executive Branch to bring evidence against them for their status.