Government: keep Padilla in military custody
on Mar 14, 2005 at 7:15 pm
This is another in a series of continuing reports on the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s June 28, 2004, ruling in Rumsfeld v. Padilla.
The Bush Administration has asked a federal judge in South Carolina to postpone a decision that would require the release of terrorist suspect Jose Padilla from a U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, while the government appeals that ruling to the Fourth Circuit. It appears likely that the case ultimately will reach the Supreme Court for a ruling on the government’s power to hold him as an “enemy combatant.” Padilla was arrested in May 2002 in Chicago, on suspicion that he planned to release a radioactive bomb in this country. No criminal charges have been filed.
In a motion for stay filed Friday with U.S. District Judge Henry F. Floyd, the Justice Department argued that releasing Padilla from military custody “would preclude the President from exercising a power he believes to be necessary to prevent future terrorist attacks.” Floyd’s February 28 ruling, the Department said, “eliminated a critical aspect of the President’s Commander-in-Chief authority – the ability to order the military capture and detention of enemy combatants who enter the United States bent on attacking civilians and the homeland.” The motion for stay can be found here.
While Floyd’s ruling would allow Padilla to be kept in civilian detention, if the government charges him with a crime or detains him as a material witness for a terrorist investigation, that would not be sufficient to protect U.S. interests, the Department contended. The President has determined that Padilla’s “military (as opposed to civilian) detention is necessary to prevent him from aiding al Qaeda in its efforts to attack the United States or its armed forces, other governmental personnel, or citizens.”
Simultaneously with seeking a stay, the Department filed a notice of appeal. The case will be taken to the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., where the government is expedited to seek expedited review. His case in Judge Floyd’s court is Padilla v. Hanft (docket 04-2221).
