cover image A War Like No Other: The Constitution in a Time of Terror

A War Like No Other: The Constitution in a Time of Terror

Owen Fiss, edited with a foreword by Trevor Sutton. New Press (Perseus, dist.), $27.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1620970973

In 10 essays written between 2003 and 2011, Fiss (The Law as It Could Be), an emeritus professor of law at Yale, considers the proper balance between the U.S. constitution's protections and the War on Terror%E2%80%94what he calls the "war that knows no limits." Through the prism of his belief that the courts must protect the constitution's core democratic values, Fiss examines U.S. policies on the Guant%C3%A1namo Bay detention camp, the rights of enemy combatants, the legality of the Iraq War, American use of torture and extraordinary rendition, wiretapping and intelligence gathering, and the targeted killing of enemy combatants. He concludes that the courts, Presidents Bush and Obama, and Congress have woefully failed to protect the values embedded in the constitution. Fiss's commentary can be judgmental, as when he labels a Supreme Court opinion on the rights of U.S. citizens accused of being enemy combatants "an act of judicial cowardice," but it's very convincing. Also, he presents an instructive and effective overview of the Israeli Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak and his work to balance the rule of law in the face of terror. Fiss's work is thought-provoking, though the writing is legalistic and presumes a basic knowledge of controlling legal principles. (June)