Roundup: Gitmo News, Supreme Court Aftermath, and a Summer of Subpoenas

Yesterday marked the end of the 2006 Supreme Court Term, and while the school desegregation rulings caused mixed feelings, the decision in the Panetti death penalty case gave us some hope. ACLU Legal Director Steve Shapiro offered his annual end-of-term summary, finding that the new conservative majority is well on its way to rolling back many of the fundamental civil rights that Americans have enjoyed until, well, this past term.

We were happy to learn that the justices, after initially refusing, have agreed to review an appeal by Guantanamo detainees seeking the right to challenge the legality of their detention in federal court. This announcement is especially heartening, considering the New York Times op-ed Colonel Morris D. Davis wrote on Tuesday that made Gitmo sound like detainee heaven. The ACLU knows better than that: Executive Director Anthony Romero, who's been to Guantanamo to observe the Military Commissions, responded with a letter to the editor.

Anthony is also on The Huffington Post this afternoon, blogging about the round of subpoenas Senator Leahy issued the White House and the Vice President's office on Wednesday. We'll be watching the developments with our new Subpoena Watch webpage, which will count down the number of days Bush, Cheney , and a cast of other characters , have to comply with the subpoenas.