In either trial forum, defendants will make an issue of how they were treated and attempt to undermine the trial politically. These efforts are likely to have more traction in a military than a civilian court. No matter how scrupulously fair the commissions are, defendants will criticize their relatively loose rules of evidence, their absence of a civilian jury and their restrictions on the ability to examine classified evidence used against them. Some say it is wrong to give Mohammed trial rights ordinarily conferred on Americans, but a benefit of civilian trials over commissions is that they make it harder for defendants to complain about kangaroo courts or victor’s justice.

That would be Jack Goldsmith and Jim Comey, the Bush Justice Department officials who stood up for the Constitution during one of its darkest hours. Read every word of their statesmanlike op-ed, as it provides a measure of balance, sanity — and, let’s be honest, political cover — to the Obama administration’s efforts at cleaning up the dreck bequeathed to it by the people Goldsmith and Comey battled.

But it’s cool, conservatives. You guys still have John Yoo and Andy McCarthy!