McCain gets points for trying, at least

Marty Lederman at Balkinization discusses the President's "signing statement" for the Defense Appropriations bill, which included both the McCain We Don't Torture Amendment and the Graham Habeas What? Amendment. For those of us who would like to see our country, you know, stop torturing people and holding them without charge, it's quite depressing:

Most importantly, as to the McCain Amendment, which would categorically prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees by all U.S. personnel, anywhere in the world, the President wrote: "The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks."

Translation: I reserve the constitutional right to waterboard when it will "assist" in protecting the American people from terrorist attacks. [UPDATE: Or, as Matthew Franck eagerly puts it over at the National Review, "the signing statement . . . conveys the good news that the president is not taking the McCain amendment lying down."]

The President also thinks that the Graham amendment renders moot all pending court cases having to do with unlawful detentions. We are in for some very interesting times up at the Supreme Court this spring,