The next President will have a momentous decision to make: And that is, whether to obey a judge’s decision and release Hamdan, the guy who was just convicted of aiding terrorism for being bin Laden’s driver.

Or whether to assert, as the Bush Administration has, that the President can detain someone indefinitely, for the entire amorphous war on terror, even after a judge has ordered his release.

This extraordinary claim, reiterated recently by Attorney General Mukasey, mocks our system of justice and would heap further ridicule on the kangaroo courts down in Guantanamo.

The judge in Guatanamo bravely sentenced Hamdan to five and a half years in prison, with credit for time served. That means, he should be out in five months: just two weeks before Bush leaves office.

My bet is that Bush will keep him locked up any way.

That will put the onus on Bush’s successor.

Last week, to his credit, Barack Obama said he’d have his Attorney General go over all of Bush’s executive orders and rescind those that trample on liberty.

He’ll have a lot of rescinding to do.

But we’ll he have the spine to free Hamdan?

And what about John McCain?

He’s been silent on these civil liberties issues, and even has taken the wrong side of torture lately.