Among the commentaries I've read about a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the one from George F. Will (The Japan Times, June 24) surprised me. The conservative columnist for The Washington Post upbraided Sen. John McCain for condemning Boumediene v. Bush — which upheld the right of habeas corpus — as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."
I remember when Will was sucking up to the Reagan administration, which was only a little less recalcitrant in its foreign conduct than the current one. It was McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, who vied with other candidates during the primaries in the claim to be a "true Reagan heir."
What surprised me about Will's article was that Will did not just reprove McCain, but also asked rhetorically: Is Boumediene v. Bush worse than Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Fergusson, or Korematsu v. United States?