"Congress has not issued the executive a 'blank check.'"

Thank you, Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens, and the other three SCOTUS justices who still have some vague grasp of what democracy is supposed to be about some of the time. As in this instance.

Supreme Court blocks Bush, Gitmo war trials

"Indeed, Congress has denied the president the legislative authority to create military commissions of the kind at issue here. Nothing prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary," Breyer wrote.

The court's ruling was a resounding loss for the Bush administration. Justices also rejected the administration's claim that the case should be thrown out on grounds that a new law stripped their authority to consider it.

"It's certainly a nail in the coffin for the idea that the president can set up these trials," said Barbara Olshansky, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents about 300 Guantanamo detainees.