Tortured logic

The president has argued that in order to defend our nation of laws and our principles of justice, we must suspend them - in certain circumstances. And Congress has agreed.

Thus, the president Tuesday signed legislation governing prosecutions and interrogations of terrorism suspects, a law that may open the door to torture. In the history of civil liberties, this was a dark day.

The law would create military commissions for prosecuting terror suspects, but it would allow evidence to be withheld from defendants. It also would ban federal courts from hearing defendants' petitions for writs of habeas corpus, a bedrock principle of our judicial system. This would essentially leave defendants no way of challenging their imprisonment.

Fortunately, much of this awaits to be decided by the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court has already held that the suspects must be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Reason demands they also be held in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.