Don't get your hopes up that this represents a new direction for the ruling class in support of the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution. This was only a lower court decision and may be overturned by higher courts that have been stuffed with compliant conservative justices. And as the author writes,
There are still other authorities (including the AUMF) which the DOJ can use to assert the power of indefinite detention. Nonetheless, this is a rare and significant limit placed on the U.S. Government’s ability to seize ever-greater powers of detention-without-charges, and it is grounded in exactly the right constitutional principles: ones that federal courts and the Executive Branch have been willfully ignoring for the past decade.The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the new constitution drafted by the new capitalist class in 1789, was added to appease irate citizens who objected to the centralized control of the new nation by a new ruling class of property holders. The amendments have been mostly ignored throughout the history of the US. Let me give you a brief history regarding the US Constitution that was likely missing from your formal education.
Originally the gathering of the young nation's ruling class in 1787 was publicized as intended only to reform or revise the Articles of Confederation which was the constitution of the 13 colonies. Instead, this new landed and commercial aristocracy decided on a revolutionary course of their own design by crafting a whole new Constitution which centralized control over the nation under their supervision. Only by tacking on the Bill of Rights and the use of political chicanery, could they get the state assemblies to ratify it finally in 1791.
Contrary to the indoctrination you received in school, the designers of the Constitution intentionally structured the government into three branches (a so-called system of "checks and balances") not to impede the development of authoritarian rule, but to serve as a bulwark against democratic influences from below: they were profoundly fearful of the town meetings and other popular assemblies
Then the new capitalist class of the United States went about rearranging other political affairs to gain greater control of the country. They established huge voting districts or even state-wide candidates for the election of representatives. Given that roads were poor and the means of communication were rather primitive, it was difficult for ordinary people who might have the right to vote, such as small farm landholders, to organize any effective political action. (Nowadays, ruling class control of all major media insures their continued rule.) This new ruling class found that such an arrangement encouraged voter apathy since only the wealthy were known by most of the people in these huge districts. Some people of the ruling class even went so far as to claim that this was America's single greatest contribution to political theory. Well, from their class perspective one has to admit that it was quite brilliant.
(One of the best single sources for further study on this subject that I know of is historian Woody Holton's book entitled, Unruly Americans.)
