Posted on 09/09/2005 9:31:58 AM PDT by george76
President Bush has the power to detain Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who has been held in a South Carolina military brig for more than three years as a suspected enemy combatant without any charges, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the president of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda,"...
A major victory for the Bush administration, but the decision can be appealed to the full appeals court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam, initially was suspected by U.S. officials of plotting with al Qaeda to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.
On May 8, 2002, Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after returning from Pakistan. Bush then declared him an enemy combatant, and Padilla was placed in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina -- where he remains.
The appeals court reversed a decision by a federal judge in South Carolina who ruled in February that Bush had no authority to have Padilla held as an enemy combatant. The judge said Padilla must be released if he is not charged with a crime.
Luttig said that Bush had the power to detain Padilla, based on the joint resolution authorizing military force that Congress approved after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"Padilla, after all, in addition to supporting hostile forces in Afghanistan and taking up arms against our troops on a battlefield in that country like Hamdi, also came to the United States in order to commit future acts of terrorism against American citizens and targets,"...
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
HA HA
maybe luttig could be arguing this same point on the supreme court soon because thats surely where this case will end up and i assume hes on the short list for scotus (if bush can ignore everyone and nominate the best candidate, not neccesarilly the minority candidate)
Annoying headline--it implies only the much-hated (by Reuters) "Bush" (who should be called President Bush in any event) is the one craving this power, as though he's some kind of dictator. Aggravating.
Freedom fry the murdering twerp.
GOOD! :-)
It's all fun and games until Hillary becomes president.
Imagine President Hillary Rodham Clinton new AG Robert Kennedy Jr. declares, along with other groups seen as part of the VRC, Free Republic a terrorist group. FR's servers are seized, and Jim Robinson, and certain other FR members are detained as "enemy combatants," on the President's authority. If this decision survives review by SCOTUS what would prevent that?
Bush sends a big fat screw you to the ACLU. Beautiful.
The brilliant Michael Luttig wrote the opinion of the court. I hope he gets it to the Supreme Court, it would be damn wasteful to have him sit on the Fourth Circuit.
the courts are reviewing these cases, Padilla's status as an enemy combatant had to be established, its not just an arbitrary classification, the court reviews the evidence behind it.
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