WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide whether President George W. Bush has the power in the war on terrorism to order American citizens captured in the United States held in military jails without any criminal charges or a trial. By a 6-3 vote, the court sided with the Bush administration and refused to hear an appeal by Jose Padilla, who was confined in a military brig in South Carolina for more than three years after Bush designated him an "enemy combatant."

The last time an executive got away with suspending habeas corpus, the country was engaged in the Civil War, with Washington in actual danger.

What's their excuse this time?