June 27, 2007

Nino and Jack

Here's one for my brothers. John Fund writes in OpinionJournal's Political Diary, "Two (Broken) Thumbs Up!"

I wound up chatting at a reception a couple years ago with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia about his love of opera and his taste in popular culture. It turned out he was a huge fan of Fox's anti-terrorist drama "24," and he convinced me to watch it for the first time.

Well, little did I know just how much of a fan Justice Scalia is of the fast-paced show. The Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada reports he positively gushed about the Fox series recently at a conference on homeland security in the Canadian capital of Ottawa that was attended by an international panel of judges. Mr. Scalia couldn't refrain from commenting after Canadian federal Judge Richard Mosley opined: "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra, 'What would Jack Bauer do?'"

As viewers know, Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is a federal agent known for roughing up suspected terrorists who are holding out on important information.

"Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles!" Mr. Scalia interjected. "He saved hundreds of thousands of lives!"

Indeed, Mr. Scalia was just warming up. "Are you going to convict Jack Bauer? Say that criminal law is against him?" he asked rhetorically. "Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so!"

Other panelists promptly challenged the American jurist, arguing that some prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay on terrorism charges could be innocent.

"I don't care about holding people. I really don't," Judge Scalia replied. After the panel broke up, he continued to wax enthusiastically about his favorite show.

If I were the producers of "24" I would immediately invite Mr. Scalia to make a guest appearance on the series. Judicial decorum would probably prevent him from doing so, but who wouldn't want to see the highly expressive Mr. Scalia in the role of a judge presiding over the trial of an accused terrorist?


UPDATE: WSJOJPD is online this week, so James Taranto can move his palatial estate. Here's this one.

Posted by jk at June 27, 2007 12:37 PM

"I don't care about holding people. I really don't." That's the problem with Scalia and other conservatives who are willing to let government to make mistakes on innocent people than to let possibly guilty people go free.

Jack Bauer, as heroic as he is, as much as I love him beating up guys we *know* are bad, is fiction. We don't have the comfort of omniscience when a CIA agent in the real world goes to work on a possible terrorist. "Possible" is the operative word. There are reports, inconclusive but we can't deny the possibility, of Iraqis turning over family feud enemies to Americans -- claim your neighbor, the one you hated for years, is a terrorist, and he could be sent off to Gitmo.

That's why I believe all Gitmo detainees should have a chance at a hearing, not just held (which they do right now, but seems to me that most don't avail themself of that so they can perpetuate the lie of being detained). They should have their hearings in front of a military tribunal, not a civilian court. Then they should be shot right away if we determine they're guilty.

And how many, then, will now volunteer for the hearings? Are those crickets I hear?

Oh, and I never wanted to take battlefield prisoners from the beginning. If they're caught in combat, shoot 'em where they stand. At least then you know they're guilty.

Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at June 28, 2007 4:16 PM

There's a little history here. I'm the only ThreeSourcer who isn't wild about '24.' I tried it for the first time this year and am pretty tepid toward it. That aroused more disapprobation than my position on immigration.

I hope Justice Scalia's enthusiasm is getting away from him a bit. As you point out, I've always thought it odd that we have the right to shoot them on sight, but quibble over their legal rights. I think they are well cared for at Gitmo and hope that the information gleaned is worth the costs of running the place.

Posted by: jk at June 28, 2007 5:15 PM | What do you think? [2]