The judges agree that any alien may apply for political asylum in this country, just as the law says, but they discern a gap in the law between the right to apply for asylum and how that right should be defined. As often happens, it is not in what the law says, but in its spaces that arbitrary rule takes root and thrives, like deadly nightshade. The court's decision stems from a long, if not honorable, tradition in American jurisprudence. When the Dred Scott decision was handed down, it was not because the justices were less attached to freedom, but that they were more attached, like this court, to the separation of powers, and they, too, felt obliged to defer to a slave state. Dred Scott may have escaped from slavery, but for various legal reasons, he would have to be returned to his master.
History is never over, and the spirit of the Fugitive Slave Act is still very much alive.
It's not quite time for the spontaneous demonstrations to be elaborately organized in Havana, and for the customary crowds to cheer the Maximum Leader, but they can get ready. Maybe he'll become a cosseted apparatchik himself, with access to hard currency and party privileges, trained to keep unacceptable thoughts at bay. A lot of Americans may not care. They'll wonder what the kid is doing back in the news. But those Americans who put freedom first will think about it, and remember.