Federal Judge Orders 'Enemy Combatant' Jose Padilla Charged Or Released

The Carolina Channel.com ^ | February 28, 2005 | TheCarolinaChannel

[MisterRepublican]

SPARTANBURG -- A federal judge in Spartanburg has ordered that an American citizen held as an enemy combatant in a Navy brig in Charleston should be charged with a crime or released.

U.S. District Judge Henry F. Floyd ruled Monday that the president of the United States does not have the authority to order Jose Padilla to be held indefinitely without being charged.

"If the law in its current state is found by the president to be insufficient to protect this country from terrorist plots, such as the one alleged here, then the president should prevail upon Congress to remedy the problem," he wrote.

In the ruling, Floyd said that three court cases that the government used to make its claim did not sufficiently apply to Padilla's case.

Floyd wrote that, in essence, "the detention of a United States citizen by the military is disallowed without explicit Congressional authorization."

Floyd wrote that because the government had not provided any proof that the president has the power to hold Padilla, he must reject the government's claim of authority.

"To do otherwise would not only offend the rule of law and violate this country’s constitutional tradition, but it would also be a betrayal of this nation’s commitment to the separation of powers that safeguards our democratic values and individual liberties," he wrote.

[Torie]

I took a quick look at Hamdi, and SCOTUS held that the guy had a right to contest that he was an ememy combatant. If he was, then he committed a crime.

[jwalsh07]

Full disclosure forces me to reveal that Scalia agrees with you.

But you know me, I bow to no man. :-}

[Torie]

Give us all hell John. If we can't take it, we don't belong in the public square, and are useless. :)

[jwalsh07]

But Thomas is clearly on my team. He even mentions the killing in Yemen which I have been misstating as taking place in Sudan. Of course there could have been more than one.

[lewislynn]

they will send federal marshalls to that brig to get him.

Federal marshals would first have to get through the gate(s)...Who says federal marshals have jurisdiction over the military?

[New Orleans Slim]

"It's sad that so many people are willing to roll over and give all our freedoms and rights away."

Hear, hear!

I'm sick of all the wussies in this country that want to wreck the constitution because they are frightened of terrorists. And before you say jack to me, my office building is right next to Ground Zero - so I get to walk by the results of the biggest terrorist attack every day. But I refuse to give one inch on the Constitution or the rights of free citizens of a republic. Cowards who would trade our liberty for security deserve neither!

Charge Padilla or let him go. He's a citizen and that's the law. The courts are open, and the country is not being invaded. There is no declaration of war by Congress, so there is no war. And I don't give a damn about what happened under FDR because FDR was a socialist.

And I'm tired of hearing that the Constitution is not a "suicide pact". Everyone saying that garbage should pull their balls out of their mothers' purses. This is a republic where citizens don't lose their rights just because it is expedient. Just think about what President Hillary would do with the power to jail people she declares "enemy combatants." Remember that politics in this country are cyclical, and the Democrats will be in the White House again someday. And we all know that at least one Democrat president tossed innocent people into camps.

[Torie]

But Senator Reid thinks Thomas is an idiot. So there.

[jwalsh07]

And Joe Biden says that Scalia doesn't understand "unenumerated rights that are in the constitution". So double there.

[jwalsh07]

OK General, should we prosecute the CIA guys who killed the American citizen/Islamofascist in Yemen? Weren't his constitutional rights violated?

And NO, there was no battlefield. It was a missile from a drone right up his ass.

[Torie]

Biden likes the liberty clause in the 14th amendment, and unenumerated penumbras attending to same. Thus his sensitivity to selecting justices who know which unenumerateds to find, and which to reject. He clearly would support Justice Kennedy getting a promotion. He probably got a hard on over Kennedy's soaring prose about exploring the universe in all its spatial dimensions. But then I notice lately that you are actually doing that, so clearly Kennedy has inspired you.

And there you have it.

[jwalsh07]

LOL. I enjoy the constituional threads much more but somebody has to keep the lions and techno's honest.

[New Orleans Slim]

"OK General, should we prosecute the CIA guys who killed the American citizen/Islamofascist in Yemen? Weren't his constitutional rights violated?"

Link? I'm unfamiliar with the case, so I'd need some details.

Do YOU think the government should have an untrammeled right to just blow up any citizen because that same government lables them an enemy? If the CIA screws up and blows you away the next time you visit Tijuana is that going to be OK with you?

[jwalsh07]

Sorry friend, that's not how it works. I asked a question. You answer. Then you ask a question and I answer. You can search the internet if you'd like or take my word for it. Or just consider it a hypothetical.

[Torie]

LOL. I love to answer questions. Each and every one, unless not reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence. Of course, sometimes the anawer is that I don't know. Shocking isn't it?

[connectthedots]

Anyone who blindly trusts a prosecutor or a prosecutor's inability to manipulate a grand jury is a fool.

[OXENinFLA]

JOSE PADILLA V. COMMANDER HANFT
(February 28, 2005)

A federal judge rules that the U.S. must either charge or release an American-born "dirty bomb" suspect who has remained in U.S. custody as an alleged al Qaeda "enemy combatant" since May 2002.

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/padilla/padhnft22805opn.pdf


Related Case History and Pleadings (Padilla v. Rumsfeld)
http://news.public.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/cases/index.html#padilla

Lawyers in the Case

Attorneys for Petitioner:

Donna R. Newman
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2946081_1

Andrew G. Patel
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1200006_1

Jonathan Marc Freiman
http://pview.f! indlaw.com/view/3247503_1

Michael P. O'Connell
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1508047_1


Attorney for Respondent:

J. Strom Thurmond
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/3376107_1

[Pablo64]

I understand your point and it's a very important one. I'm just frustrated by what seems to be a general attitude that assumes automatically that the president has the worst of motives. It seems like it is assumed that GWB is just looking for any way he can to grab power and abuse rights. I know that's what the libs and the lamestream media would like everyone to think.

[motleypoet]

Uh.. No it's the highest law in the land. You don't like it? There are plenty of countries without it's pesky provisions. Iran for one.
It's an imperfect system we have, but it's the best in the world, and one we ought to cherish. Apparently some people here have forgoten the motto of Free Republic -- Defending our Constitution. We need not become like our enemies in order to fight them.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You have to combat to be a combatant.

This guy is guilty of treason, try him.

[Little Ray]

This is a good thing. The Federales need to get their house in order. They need to charge this man with crimes (such as TREASON) and make 'em stick, or they need to pack up and go home.

Imagine if Hillary! were President and decided she needed to be rid of JimRob. Using the same reasoning, she could toss him in the clink as a "terrorist mastermind" and hold him indefinitely and not have to prove her craven accusations.

Remember, G. W. Bush won't be President forever...