Yes, Governor, it does matter whether terrorists are held at GTMO or Fort Levenworth, as Sen. Thompson pointed out. If you hold an alien national in the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, they have habeas rights under the Constitution. That’s why we don’t hold them there.

If you think it doesn’t matter, does that mean that you endorse Justice Kennedy’s position on the detainee issue? If so, on what grounds? Are you going to kowtow to a poorly-written and excessively legalistic argument? If so, then how can you argue against Roe v. Wade? Just because Justice Kennedy thinks that GTMO is part of the United States does not make it so, especially when the entire history of the writ of habeas corpus has never been applied to foreign nationals held out of the territorial jurisdiction of a country.

Sorry, governor, you are wrong on the law. That’s why you went to Ouchita Baptist University and not Harvard or NYU.

Huckabee is not prepared to be President.

UPDATE: Martin Andrade asks if I think a law degree should be a prerequisite to being President. Certainly not, although a basic understanding of legal issues certainly is. I don’t begrudge the fact that Mike Huckabee is not a lawyer, but I do take umbrage at the fact that he doesn’t understand such a crucial issue. The next President will more likely than not fill at least one Supreme Court vacancy, and the last thing we need is for someone with no legal experience giving us another Souter—or worse yet another Harriet Miers.

(As a side note, I didn’t know that Mitt Romney has both a JD and an MBA from Harvard, and graduated in the top of his class from both. That’s pretty impressive in my book. I’m starting to see why National Review endorsed Romney…)