[TChris]

WASHINGTON - In a sharp rebuke, a federal appeals court denied Wednesday a Bush administration request to transfer terrorism suspect Jose Padilla from military to civilian law enforcement custody.

The three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused the administration's request to vacate a September ruling that gave President Bush wide authority to detain "enemy combatants" indefinitely without charges on U.S. soil.

OK, I'm officially confused. The Bush administration is seeking to have a favorable ruling, recognizing its authority to detain enemy combatants, vacated??? ...and to have Padilla put in civil custody instead of military???

I don't get it...

[oceanview]

the administration knows its going to lose the appeal in the SCOTUS, the civil indictment was used as a ruse to delay it.

"Luttig said the administration has risked its "credibility before the courts" by appearing to use the indictment of Padilla to thwart an appeal of the appeals court's decision that gave the president wide berth in holding enemy combatants."

Padilla will be granted a US civil trial, which the administration knows it cannot win given the rules of evidence - for example, they cannot allow the top AQ folks being held in the foreign prisons, to be deposed.

[ndt]

"OK, I'm officially confused. "

Yup that's correct. If it is not vacated, then they will likely have to defend their decision to detain him they way they did, quite possibly in the S.C. and there is the distinct possibility of having it shot down.

If the lower court ruling is vacated, and Padilla is moved to civilian court the point is moot.

This is not so much about Padilla as it is about the methods of his detainment.

Anyone, please correct me if I'm mistaken, but that is how I understand it.

[Sandy]

He was trying moot the case. Bush doesn't want this going to the Supreme Court. That's why Padilla was finally charged with a crime just recently--so that Padilla could be moved from military custody and so that the court could then vacate its decision. He lost: Padilla's staying put and the decision isn't being vacated. Meaning, on to SCOTUS.

[JCEccles]

If the administration concludes that there are at least five SCOTUS justices primed to reverse the 4th Circuit and gut the administration's discretion on how it deals with captured enemy combatants, the administration is unlikely to want the question to go to SCOTUS right now. Every day that result can be delayed is one more day the administration has to deal with captured enemy combatants freely and flexibly.

Liberals want the matter to go the Supreme Court immediately so they can "stick it" to President Bush while they still have a sympathetic majority on the SCOTUS willing to do their bidding.