Supreme Court Says U.S. Can Move Padilla
Whatever. Why even bother with a trial if you can't decide what to charge him with? Just lock him up, he's been in there for quite a while, what's a few more years until the rest of his case is heard. Civil rights are highly overrated lately. And from WaPo we get a little more information.
The justices overruled a lower court, which had attempted to block the transfer as part of a rebuke to the White House.
The high court said it would decide later whether to review Padilla's challenge to his military detention. It granted the Bush administration's request for a transfer in a one-page order.
Padilla's jailing as an enemy combatant for the past 3 1/2 years has been the subject of multiple court rulings and criticism by civil rights groups.
The former Chicago gang member was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and put in military custody, where he was held without charges and traditional legal rights.
The Supreme Court had been asked to use Padilla's case to define the scope of a president's power over American citizens taken into custody on U.S. soil. The justices had been expected to hear his appeal, but shortly before word was to come, the government brought criminal charges against him in Florida.
Those charges do not involve allegations that had been made by the administration since 2002 — that Padilla was part of an al-Qaida backed plot to blow up apartment buildings. Instead, a grand jury charged Padilla with being part of a North American terrorism cell that raised funds and recruited fighters to wage violent jihad outside the United States.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., refused last month to allow the transfer of Padilla from military custody in South Carolina to civilian custody, citing the government's use of one set of facts before the courts to justify Padilla's military detention without charges and another to persuade a grand jury in Miami to indict him on the terrorism-related charges.
The Supreme Court had been asked to use Padilla's case to define the scope of a president's power over American citizens taken into custody on U.S. soil. The justices had been expected to agree to hear his appeal, but shortly before word was to come, the government brought criminal charges against him in Florida and then argued that the appeal was moot.Say it with me now, Amendment VI,
The criminal charges do not involve allegations that had been made by the administration since 2002 _ that Padilla was part of an al-Qaida backed plot to blow up apartment buildings. Instead, a grand jury charged Padilla with being part of a North American terrorism cell that raised funds and recruited fighters to wage violent jihad outside the United States.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., refused last month to allow the transfer of Padilla from military custody in South Carolina to civilian custody. The court criticized the Bush administration's use of one set of facts before the courts to justify Padilla's military detention without charges and another to persuade a grand jury in Miami to indict him on the terrorism-related charges.
He is an American citizen, nuff said.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
I have to go practice my marching to go along with the bowing and the scraping. Sheesh.
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment