Told you so!! Bush/Ashcroft incarceration of Padilla is unconstitutional. You need to learn about law before you continue *practicing*. LOLOL
Appeals Court: President does not have power to detain U.S. citizen Padilla as enemy combatant
sfgate.com
LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Thursday, December 18, 2003
(12-18) 10:05 PST NEW YORK (AP) --
President Bush does not have power to detain American citizen Jose Padilla, the former gang member seized on U.S. soil, as an enemy combatant, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The decision could force the government to try Padilla, held in a so-called "dirty bomb" plot, in civilian courts.
In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress and that Bush could not designate him as an enemy combatant without the authorization.
The former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam was arrested in May 2002 Chicago's O'Hare airport as he returned from Pakistan. Within days, he was moved to a naval brig in Charleston, S.C.
The court directed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to release Padilla from military custody within 30 days, but said the government was free to transfer him to civilian authorities who can bring criminal charges.
If appropriate, Padilla can also be held as a material witness in connection with grand jury proceedings, the court said.
"As this court sits only a short distance from where the World Trade Center stood, we are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat al-Qaida poses to our country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials bear for protecting the nation," the court said.
"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum, and this case involves not whether those responsibilities should be aggressively pursued, but whether the president is obligated, in the circumstances presented here, to share them with Congress," it added.
In a dissenting opinion, District Judge Richard C. Wesley said the president as commander in chief "has the inherent authority to thwart acts of belligerency at home or abroad that would do harm to United States citizens."
Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for interim U.S. Attorney David Kelley, said he could not comment. In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the agency was reviewing the decision.
Padilla's lawyer, Donna Newman did not immediately return a telephone message for comment. Newman has battled in court to be able to meet with Padilla; she has not done so since he was designated an enemy combatant the month after he was arrested.
Chris Dunn, a staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the ruling "historic."
"It's a repudiation of the Bush administration's attempt to close the federal courts to those accused of terrorism," he said. The group had submitted a legal brief supporting Padilla.
"It's right on the money," added Barbara Olshansky, deputy legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which argued in court papers that Bush lacked authority.
Padilla is accused of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb," which uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive materials. The government said he had proposed the bomb plot to Abu Zubaydah, then al-Qaida's top terrorism coordinator. Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002.
Only two other people have been designated enemy combatants since the 2001 terrorist attacks: Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar who has been accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent, and Esam Hamdi, a Louisiana native captured during the fighting in Afghanistan.
In its ruling, the court said it was not addressing the detention of any U.S. citizens seized within a zone of combat in Afghanistan. |
