End of story

After 76 years of running with the big boys, Pluto's failure to "clear its neighborhood" (as astronomers might say) ultimately led to its demotion from one of the solar system's nine planets to a dwarf planet known as 134340. Under new definitions put forth by the International Astronomical Union, a planet must orbit around the sun, coalesce into a round shape, and be substantial enough to sweep away most of the debris from its orbit. Pluto failed on the third count.

The Bush administration has released since 2002 nearly half the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: 360 with 420 remaining. But the status of terror-related detainees remained a sore point. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals used to try detainees were illegal. Reacting to the June 29 setback, the Bush administration pushed and Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, which allows military trials of enemy combatants and prevents them from bringing their cases before federal judges.