{"id":6157,"date":"2006-04-03T16:15:33","date_gmt":"2006-04-03T23:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=6157"},"modified":"2006-04-03T16:15:33","modified_gmt":"2006-04-03T23:15:33","slug":"court-refuses-to-hear-padilla-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=6157","title":{"rendered":"“Court refuses to hear Padilla appeal”"},"content":{"rendered":"

From SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held in a military jail for more than three years as an “enemy combatant.” The Court, however, declined to dismiss the case as moot, as the Bush Administration had urged. Only three Justices voted to hear the case, according to the order and accompanying opinions. The case was Padilla v. Hanft<\/i> (05-533).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe decision was a victory for the Bush Administration in one significant sense: by not finding the case to be moot, the Court leaves intact a sweeping Fourth Circuit Court decision upholding the president’s wartime power to seize an American inside the U.S. and detain him or her as a terrorist enemy, without charges and—for an extended period—without a lawyer. The Court, of course, took no position on whether that was the right result, since it denied review.<\/b> The Second Circuit Court, at an earlier stage of Padilla’s own case, had ruled just the opposite of the Fourth Circuit, denying the president’s power to seize him in the U.S. and hold him. That ruling, though, no longer stands as a precedent, since the Supreme Court earlier shifted Padilla’s case from the Second to the Fourth Circuit.\n<\/p>\n

\n[…]\n<\/p>\n

\nThe most important of the two opinions issued with the order denying review was one that spoke for three Justices who did not vote to the case, but took the unusual step of issuing an opinion to justify the denial of review. They said that “there are strong prudential reasons disfavoring” Court review. Padilla is due to go on trial on criminal charges in civilian court, and “any consideration of what rights he might be able to assert if he were returned to military custody would be hypothetical, and to no effect, at this stage of the proceedings.”\n<\/p>\n

\nIn an opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy<\/a>, and joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice John Paul Stevens, those three conceded that Padilla “has a continuing concern that his status might be altered again.” That, however, “can be addressed if the necessity arises.”\n<\/p>\n

\n[…] That the Kennedy opinion did not also attract the support of conservative Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas was a sign that it had gone too far to concede points in Padilla’s favor. They appeared to have silently voted against review.\n<\/p>\n

\nJustices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter said they would have heard the case. Ginsburg wrote a separate opinion<\/a> making the argument that the case was not moot, and should be reviewed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[my emphasis]<\/p>\n

\nAs “federalist” wrote in the comments section at SCOTUSblog:<\/p>\n

\n

The view that the Supreme Court can have something to say about Padilla, I think, shows that some Members of the Court don’t think that this is a real war. In a real war, the judiciary should have a very limited role. I harken back to the Civil War. Thousands upon thousands of American citizens were captured by Union forces. No one would have ever thought that the judiciary would have any say in their captivity. Now, it may be argued that those prisoners were under arms and under the command of an organized military. But so what, does that mean that people who engage in warlike activities (which the gov’t alleges Padilla was going to do) get more protection than those lawfully engaging in combat. Why should Padilla get more than Johnny Reb?\n<\/p>\n

\nThe answer, I think, is that people think of the GWOT as less than a real war.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThough the analogy may not hold perfectly, the key point here is in recognizing the underlying tension—the same tension we see in arguments that FISA constrains the President’s Article II military powers by force of statute:  some people continue to view the authorization of force resolution against al Qaeda and its splinter groups as the equivalent of a UN resolution:  it sounds<\/i> forceful, sure.  But it’s not like we really meant<\/i> it or anything…\n<\/p>\n

\nYour thoughts?\n<\/p>\n

\n(h\/t Major John)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held in a military jail for more than three years as an “enemy combatant.” The Court, however, declined to dismiss the case as moot, as the Bush Administration had urged. Only three Justices voted to hear the case, according to the order and accompanying opinions. The case was Padilla v.<\/p>\n

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