Although it's still early, our vote for editorial of the day goes to the Virginia Pilot for Liberty in Limbo in the Norfolk Brig, and its sharp rebuke of the decision of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Yaser Hamdi case:

Americans who fear government abuse of power should be concerned by the constitutional no man's land in which Yaser Esam Hamdi finds himself. A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the government can hold indefinitely a U.S. citizen arrested overseas in wartime, without any constitutional protections, if the military merely declares him an ``enemy combatant....''

The Richmond-based panel included possible Supreme Court nominee J. Harvie Wilkinson III. It said that because the Constitution empowers the executive branch to wage war, the judiciary must defer to the military when cases like Hamdi's arise..... (emphasis is our's)

As justification to jail Hamdi indefinitely, the government relied on a meager two-page statement from a mid-level Defense Department appointee not even present at Hamdi's capture. Hamdi has not seen -- and now cannot see -- the evidence against him. Nor will he be allowed a chance to present his version of the facts, or even contest that he was an enemy combatant in the first place....

In this ill-defined, undeclared war, some of our freedoms will likely be sacrificed to ensure our collective security. But Americans have always been able to look to the courts for reason, fairness and defense of liberties. With this decision, the judiciary has abdicated its duty to act as a check on executive branch power in wartime. File this away: The government can now label someone an enemy combatant, imprison him indefinitely and never have to defend or justify the accusation.

Update: Best of the Blogs (The Daily Dish Digest) picks up on this Pilot editorial, and about “possible Supreme Court nominee J. Harvie Wilkinson III, asks, ”Would a sitting judge sell out his country’s hard-earned freedoms and whore himself for a chance to play the Big Room? You bet your ass, Red Ryder."