Earlier this month, a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Richmond, Va., ruled the Bush administration couldn’t continue to hold Ali al-Marri, a Qatari citizen and a legal U.S. resident, in military detention indefinitely without charging him with a crime.

As expected, the hate-Bush crowd had a field day. "Another sweeping repudiation of the administration’s strategy of treating suspected terrorists like enemy soldiers rather than like criminals," stated an ACLU representative.

"A major setback," "a severe rebuke," "a victory for the Constitution," and on and on, ad nauseam.

First, these people shouldn’t start partying quite yet. As I said above, it was a panel of three judges making this decision, and the decision was only 2-1.

The U.S. attorney general has already asked the full 4th Circuit Court to review the decision. This means 15 judges, rather than three, will be looking at the facts of the case. Legal authorities predict that it will end up in the Supreme Court.

Also, let’s look at the false accusations that President Bush has misused his power to declare a U.S. citizen an enemy combatant.

Remember how after the Patriot Act was passed, all those Chicken Littles cried how armed men in black suits, wearing black sunglasses and driving black limos were going to break into citizens’ homes by the thousands, tearing them from their crying families and that they would disappear forever?

How many times has it happened? Maybe four, no more than five times. Wow, what blatant disregard for our Constitution. And who were these innocent victims?

First came little Johnny Walker Lindh. He was an easy one. He was the U.S. citizen captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan while attempting to kill Americans.

Briefly (unfortunately) held by the military, he was luckily (for him) convicted in federal district court and sentenced to 20 years. He should have been held by the military, bled for information and then, under the Unified Code of Military Justice, hanged for treason.

Next came Yaser Eser Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana (his only claim to U.S. citizenship) but grew up in Saudi Arabia. He was another one captured in Afghanistan, held at Guantanamo until his citizenship was discovered and then transferred to a naval brig in South Carolina.

He lost all of his appeals. The case went to the Supreme Court, which agreed he could be held by the military but only if the administration gave him a fair opportunity to challenge its claims.

After we got all the valuable information from him, he had to renounce his American citizenship and was deported to Saudi Arabia. I’m sure his right to due process will be allowed there.

Then came Jose Padilla, a reputed gang member who was arrested in Chicago in 2004. All he did was train at a terror camp and for a while served at a Taliban camp in Afghanistan. He was accused of being part of a plan by Al Qaeda to explode a dirty bomb in an American city.

The same 4th Circuit Court mentioned above upheld Bush’s decision that he be labeled an enemy combatant and held by the military. Since the defense was ready to appeal to the Supreme Court, Bush had him transferred back to civilian control where he is on trial for aiding terrorism, costing us taxpayers much more money.

The civilian trial is still under way, and as of June 21, it was ruled that the prosecution could play a videotape of Padilla being interviewed by bin Laden.

Lastly, we have Ali al-Marri, the person mentioned at the beginning of this column. This gentleman was a trainee in one of bin Laden’s Afghanistan terror camps and even met with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

So there is the extent of Bush’s alleged misuse of constitutional authority. Pretty reckless handling of the above "innocent civilians and residents."

The reason for declaring an individual an enemy combatant is pretty clear: to keep the individual from performing additional acts of terror and to deny access to an attorney, which would severely limit the ability to acquire valuable information.

In one case, an attorney was allowed for Sheikh Omar Abdell-Rahman _ Lynne Stewart, a radical American activist attorney. She used her right to see the accused to pass along secret messages to his followers.

She was convicted of such charges, was disbarred, and is serving only a 28-month prison term. She could have, and should have, gotten life.

I wish I had more space to provide you with more facts. Maybe my next column will be used to give you more facts, not opinion. It all depends on what comes up between now and my next column deadline.

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Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week.