THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW ; `Enemy Combatants'

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A panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the United States can't ignore an essential provision of the Constitution merely by putting labels on U.S. citizen defendants and shunting their cases from civil to military courts.

When it appeared last year that the U.S. Supreme Court was about to crack down on incognito detentions, President George W. Bush and the Congress conspired to pass the misbegotten Military Commission Act, establishing an alternative "judicial" system for military detainees the government believes to be "enemy combatants." By merely sending detainees into the military system, the government could deny them legal representation or any …