Independence Day Came Early This Year.

Andrew Sullivan's Times of London take on the meaning of last week's Supreme Court decision.

What happened last week was the return of constitutional order. The court insisted that the president needed legislative backing for prosecuting terrorists and that he was bound by the laws of warfare passed by Congress. The farcical military tribunals at Gitmo were more suited to a banana republic than the US -- and they had to be scrapped. Torture is illegal in America -- and the president has no authority to say otherwise. What we saw last week, in other words, was the end of a potential rival regime to constitutional government in America.