The Imperial Supreme Court By Robert Haddick

Critics of the Bush administration assert that America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other actions, overt and covert, in the larger War on Terror, constitute an attempt by President Bush to create an American empire in the classic meaning of that term. These critics claim that the U.S. military has seized foreign countries, and that President Bush has used the government's power to compel obedience from weaker nation-states, in the manner of past imperial powers.

Yet it is the United States Supreme Court that could in the months ahead make the most stunning declarations of U.S. authority over the sovereignty of other countries. In a list of cases now before the Court, petitioners are calling on the Supreme Court to extend the judicial power of the United States into the territory and affairs of other nation-states. Should the Court take these breathtaking steps, there will be few limits remaining to the reach of the Court's jurisdiction. It would then be up to future Presidents and Congresses to cope with the consequences of the Court's imperial ambitions.

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