The majority opinion by Judge Janice Rogers Brown announced a new, highly deferential standard toward the government’s factual allegations. Government records, including intelligence reports like the one submitted in the Latif case, she said, are entitled not only to the standard “presumption of authenticity” – that the report is what the government says it is – but additionally to a presumption of reliability – that its assertions are accurate, unless the detainee can somehow refute them.

Why is it that the Court, a supposedly equal branch, insists on ceding its judicial authority to the executive branch? Its a mystery to me, but there must be an answer.