'Hold them indefinitely without explanation'

This would be significant if the Bush administration weren't already doing what the ruling allows. So this is just legal cover for the administration to keep on keepin' on, a piece of paper to satisfy a file, and will have no practical effect on the government's activities.

A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that the government has wide latitude under immigration law to detain noncitizens on the basis of religion, race or national origin, and to hold them indefinitely without explanation.

The ruling came in a class-action lawsuit by Muslim immigrants detained after 9/11, and it dismissed several key claims the detainees had made against the government. But the judge, John Gleeson of United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, allowed the lawsuit to continue on other claims, mostly that the conditions of confinement were abusive and unconstitutional. Judge Gleeson's decision requires top federal officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, to answer to those accusations under oath.

I'd argue that this is a slippery slope and the ruling will soon be expanded to include American citizens that the regime believes to be aligned with its enemies, but the administration already reserves the right to hold such people indefinitely without charges, right Jose Padilla?

But even though it will have no impact on the government's activities, it's dangerous because it seeks to legitimize the illegitimate. And I'd say that the values inherent in the Constitution are a steep price to pay to get John Ashcroft on the witness stand.