EDITORIAL: Court, Congress on collision course for constitutional crisis.(Editorial)

Oct. 25--We wandered into a classroom recently at a certain distinguished law school where U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., was taking questions from students. His responses reflected someone upset with the U.S. Supreme Court and the legacy of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, but one who is facing a historic dilemma.

Specter devoted several lengthy answers to an ongoing conflict between Congress and the court that we have described elsewhere as a constitutional crisis in slow motion. Indian country should pay close attention. This crisis began with an attack on the rights of American Indians who follow peyote medicine ways; other Indian rights could be put on the line as well. The rest of the country should also be watching nervously. The conflict will heat up sharply as it moves from Indian religious rights to the constitutionality of the Bush administration's "war on terror." As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a strong critic of the court, Specter is caught in an uncomfortable straddle.

Specter has attacked a string of court decisions limiting congressional power. At the same time, he's opposed …