20Feb04-Bloomberg-Padilla `Dirty Bomb' Terror Case Gets U.S. Supreme Court Review
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court added another case to its war-on-terrorism docket, agreeing to decide whether the government can hold as an enemy combatant a U.S. citizen accused of trying to explode a radioactive ``dirty bomb.''
The court will hear the Bush administration's appeal in the case of Jose Padilla, who was arrested in 2002 after arriving in Chicago on a flight from Pakistan. A lower court said the government can't incarcerate him without charges as an enemy combatant. The justices previously agreed to hear an appeal by another U.S. citizen held as a combatant, Yaser Esam Hamdi.
The court probably will hear arguments in April on those cases and an appeal by inmates of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, with rulings expected by July when the presidential election campaign is in full swing. In all three cases, the inmates say the government is holding them unfairly. The Bush administration says it must prevent new acts of terrorism following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The government has information that ``Padilla is closely associated with al-Qaeda and came to the United States to advance the conduct of terrorist operations'' on behalf of Osama bin Laden's organization, Solicitor General Theodore Olson said in court papers filed in Washington.
The lower court ruling ``significantly undermines the ability of the president to protect the nation from further enemy attacks in wartime,'' Olson said.
`Entire Nation a Battlefield'
Padilla's lawyers said the U.S. Constitution ``does not give the president authority to detain American citizens on American soil outside a zone of combat.'' They said the government is trying to call ``the entire nation a battlefield in which any person may be seized and held without trial for the indefinite future.''
Padilla was arrested on suspicion of plotting with al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. with a bomb made with radioactive material. No charges were filed against him, and he was transferred to a military brig in South Carolina.
The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Dec. 18 that the government couldn't hold Padilla as an enemy combatant without congressional authorization. The court ordered him released from military custody within 30 days, though it put the order on hold while the government appealed to the Supreme Court.
The appeals court said the government cannot hold ``American citizens seized on American soil and not actively engaged in combat'' in military custody.
Hamdi Appeal
Olson said in court papers that al-Qaeda ``has extended the battle far beyond traditional notions of battlefield combat'' and seeks to carry out ``surreptitious and large-scale attacks against civilian targets.''
Padilla's lawyers urged the Supreme Court not to hear the government's appeal. Still, they said that, if the court granted review, the justices should decide whether Padilla has a right to a court hearing to challenge the government's reasons for holding him.
Because Padilla was arrested in the U.S., his case differs from the appeal by Hamdi, who was taken into custody in a combat zone in Afghanistan. The U.S. says Hamdi went to that country to train with and ``if necessary, fight for the Taliban.''
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals barred Hamdi from challenging his detention in a military brig in South Carolina.
A third appeal was filed on behalf of 16 of the approximately 650 non-U.S. citizens being held at Guantanamo Bay. A federal appeals court in Washington ruled against them, saying foreign citizens captured and held abroad have no right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.
The case granted review today is Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 03- 1027.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Laurie Asseo in Washington at lasseo1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor of this story:
Glenn Hall at ghall@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 20, 2004 12:38 EST
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