in the syllabus for the hamdan case, it tells you something about the fragmentation of legal opinion here. i want to read this quickly and then -- here's what the syllabus says. stevens, j. announced the opinion of the court with respects one through four, parts six telesimbingg d three and part five in which justices suter, bryant joined and in respect to part six d 4. breyer, justice, file and opinion to concur, as to parts one and two, scalia, justice, filed a dissenting opinion in which thomas and alito joined. thomas justice filed an opinion in which others joined except for parts two, three b one. roberts, the chief justice took no part of the consideration or the decision of the case. i mean, that's -- i think the one thing you can be clear about in the setting like that is roberts took no part in the decision of the case. and if we are trying to say that the law, that the rule of law, provides a set of boundaries in which people can make decisions with confidence, and in the defense of the united states of america, we need for the executive branch to have a set of rules that

with the hamdan case, he was slated far militaryommission and the supreme court of the united states indicated there was not a clear authorization for military commissions in e law for the president, at least consistent with the way the military commission was at that time configured. the authorization to use military force, which w drafted originally passed by the congress, the resolution was general, it didn't seek to spessity everything that needed to be done. i think it was the vw of the administration that that provided the generaliz authority tt conduct a war in such a way, include degree taining d adjudicating individuals who violated the law in their attack on the united states anthe congress basically had made that kind of a generalized authorizaon. the supreme court said no, but the congress could do something that would provide a basis for the court for the adjudication of people like hamdan, who was saido be osama bin laden's driver. so the congress then acted. they created the military commissions act which became litigated on the bumaain case. that's the next to the las