Government Appeals Padilla Case to High Court
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WASHINGTON — The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court Friday not to force the release of a U.S.-born suspected terrorist and then immediately appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The administration wants the high court to take on the case of Jose Padilla, a former gang member and convert to Islam who was arrested in Chicago in May 2002 in connection with an alleged plot to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb.”
If the Supreme Court agrees, it could combine the case with one that tests the legal rights of a U.S.-born terror suspect captured overseas. Together the cases could put the court on track to rule by summer on whether national security justifies detention of American citizens indefinitely and without charges.
The Justice Department filed a request with a federal appeals court in New York, asking that a ruling ordering Padilla’s release be put on hold.
“The court of appeals has issued an unprecedented decision ordering release of an individual whom the president, acting as commander in chief in a time of war, has determined poses a grave danger to the national security of the United States and should be detained as an enemy combatant,” Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued in a legal filing.
The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “erroneously restricts the president’s authority to prevent further attacks within the nation’s borders” and should be reversed by the Supreme Court, Olson said.
The 2nd Circuit’s Dec. 18 decision gave the government 30 days from the date of its final order to release Padilla. The order is not final, so that clock has not yet begun to run.
If the 2nd Circuit grants a reprieve, Padilla would not be released at least until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the appeal.
The 2nd Circuit’s ruling “not only overturns the president’s determination that Padilla’s custody by the military is necessary to protect the nation’s security and prosecute the war, but also eliminates a critical aspect of the president’s commander-in-chief authority,” Deputy Solicitor General Paul D. Clement wrote in asking the 2nd Circuit to put its order on hold.
That aspect, he said, is “the power to order the military to capture and detain enemy combatants, including United States citizen enemy combatants, that enter the United States determined to conduct hostile and warlike acts.”
Padilla is accused of plotting with Al Qaeda operatives to detonate a makeshift device that would use conventional explosives to disperse radioactive materials.
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