Assault on the Constitution.

• Position: Comment - Military tribunals - Brief Article - Editorial

Of all the repressive acts the Bush Administration has engaged in since September 11, none is as pernicious as the military order Bush signed on November 13, which authorized extra-constitutional military tribunals.

It is one of the scariest orders ever issued by any President, and it amounts to the gravest assault on our Constitution at least since Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre and perhaps since FDR's order to put Japanese Americans in internment camps or John Adams's Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

This is serious stuff.

By Presidential fiat, George W. Bush has overturned our system of checks and balances. Brazenly, he states in the order: "I find ... that it is not practicable to apply in military commissions under this order the principles of law and the rules of evidence generally recognized in the trial of criminal cases in the United States district courts."

But what gives him the right to block access to the court system and suspend the principles of law and the rules of evidence?

The Constitution does not endow him with this power. The President's judicial powers are restricted to granting reprieves and pardons, filling vacancies, and making appointments to the Supreme Court. By contrast, Congress has the power "to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court" and the overarching power "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

In plain English, Bush has no authority to do what he has done.

The sweep of the order is extraordinary. Bush has arrogated to himself the right to apprehend "any individual who is not a United States citizen" and subject that person to a secret military trial and then impose the death penalty. So, even if you're a legal immigrant, he can round you up, try you, and fry you. Plus, he can go anywhere around the world, nab any citizen of a foreign country, and drag that person into his kangaroo court, which he can hold "outside or within the United States." He thus can become a globetrotting executioner.

Look at the broad definition of "terrorist" he has established for himself. He can get you if "there is reason to believe" (and Bush would be the one doing the believing) you have "engaged in, aided or abetted, or conspired to commit, acts of international terrorism, or acts in preparation therefor, that...