GLOBAL DIALOGUE Volume 12 ● Number 1 ● Winter/Spring 2010—Working the Dark Side

Restoring the Rule of Law

CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE

Christopher H. Pyle teaches constitutional law and civil liberties at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts. His most recent book is Getting Away with Torture: Secret Government, War Crimes, and the Rule of Law (Potomac, 2009).

or more than a year now, President Barack Obama’s most enthusiastic supporters have given him the benefit of their doubts. They know that the many challenges he faces are enormously difficult, but they still hope that he might, in the fullness of time, get around to restoring the rule of law and the promise that is America. Unfortunately, that hope is misplaced.

The founders’ America, which was hijacked by cowboy America during the years of President George W. Bush, continues to be held hostage by the same, lawless forces. President Obama is not standing up to the advocates of a war without end, or of the criminal interrogations that have gone with it. On the contrary, he has...