Padilla case before Court next month
on May 25, 2005 at 2:46 pm
The next big terrorism case to reach the Supreme Court will be acted upon next month. The Court’s electronic docket notes that the Jose Padilla case will be considered by the Court on June 9. Padilla, designated an enemy combatant by the President, is seeking review of the President’s authority to detain him indefinitely. (The case is Padilla v. Hanft, 04-1342, asking the Court to hear the case before the Fourth Circuit gets to it.)
The Justice Department has urged the Court not to step in, thus allowing the case to proceed on the government’s appeal at the Circuit Court level, arguing that a Circuit Court ruling “would provide guidance on sensitive issues of first impression that implicate important considerations of national security.” The case is being expedited in the Fourth Circuit, with a hearing scheduled there for July 19. (In the Circuit, it is docketed as 05-6396. The Circuit Court recently accepted for filing an amicus brief supporting the government by the Washington Legal Foundation and the Allied Educational Foundation. That brief can be found here.)
Because the case arises in the Supreme Court so near the end of the current Term, review before judgment in the Circuit Court is not likely to be granted. Even if granted, it almost certainly would not be heard, even with expedition, until the new Term starting in October, and the Circuit Court might have acted in the meantime.
