It is about a unilateral assertion of power by the executive, with no clear limits, claimed and executed in secret.
The blanket closure order the government had relied on, sealing hundreds of cases solely on its unilateral assertion that they were of "special interest" in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, was, the appeals court held, insufficient.
This unilateral assertion of presidential power is flatly inconsistent with the constitutional text and the original understanding of the framers.
But the risk of accidental engagement in the zone traversed by hundreds of planes each day, the analysts say, has been greatly elevated by China's unilateral assertion of sovereignty and its demands that all entering aircraft file advance flight plans to Beijing.
Whether they are viewed as modest or aggressive, however, the three terrorism decisions are consistent with the Supreme Court's longtime impatience with sweeping assertions of unilateral executive power.
But she has provided few clues about where she stands on the great legal issues of the day, notably the Bush administration's broad assertions of unilateral executive power in areas like detention, surveillance, interrogation and rendition.
Mr. Savage — who holds a master's degree from Yale Law School — not only situates moves made by the current administration in historical perspective with earlier assertions of unilateral presidential power (made by the likes of Harry S. Truman and Nixon), but also shrewdly assesses those moves in terms of mainstream constitutional scholarship.
One "barrel" is an assertion of unilateral presidential power in military and foreign affairs that is unprecedented in the breadth of its ambition to fend off congressional regulation and judicial oversight.
Dan Wall, Oracle's lead lawyer, disputed Mr. Scott's assertion that the unilateral effects theory applied in this case.
It was in that case, Rasul v. Bush, that the Supreme Court in June 2004 landed the first body blow to the Bush administration's assertion that it has the unilateral power to designate people as terrorists and then hold them forever without charges.
