This is the time of year that Supreme Court geeks love: the end of the term, when the biggest decisions of the year are announced.

There are two possible reasons why they save the big cases for the end: either those cases require the most time to decide and write, or the Justices want to get the heck out of Dodge before anyone can question them.

For me, nothing this year can compare to the anticipation and excitement I felt for Lawrence v. Texas last year (the one-year anniversary is this Saturday), but of this term’s remaining cases (the Cheney energy case decision was announced today), there are still some important ones: the terrorism/prisoner-detention cases. You can follow an ongoing dialogue between Dahlia Lithwick and Walter Dellinger as they discuss these. Lithwick states:

The photos accompanying these stories on the front pages will all be of alleged terrorists, even though these cases are really all about the president. …

I have this mental image that I cannot shake: The war on terror rolls inexorably along, crushing out basic rights and freedoms as the judges puff along on the sidelines, robes flapping ineffectually, trying to stop this machine that is the Pentagon, the Bush administration, and the Justice Department. We are now poised at the exact moment when the court really could stop that machine, or slow it down, or at least peek in a window. This is breathtaking when you think about it.

Dellinger points out the following Nixon quote: “Well, when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

Yikes.

Tune in Monday.