In Re Padilla

[jhetley]

(Or some such legal-beagle language.)

Mostly lost in the furor over high gas prices and Katrina-fallout, an appeals court has ruled in favor of Da Man on the little matter of Jose Padilla.

This, for the uninitiated, asserts the guv'ment's power to hold a US citizen, arrested on US soil, unarmed and without resistance, as an "enemy combatant" to be held without charge, counsel, or trial. In solitary confinement. Indefinitely.

In other words, the Disappeared have arrived on Maple Street.

So much for "strict construction" of the constitution.

Comments

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

This really bothers me... I'm not even sure if the ruling is following the Bush administration's argument (that the President's declaration is all that's necessary) or if there was a hearing to show cause to hold him, or what.

The issue is *not* Padilla himself. The issue is the next person, about whom the evidence may be sketchier, or the person after that, who has the wrong name and wrong general appearance, etc..

I mean, if the government had to show really strong evidence to be able to lock Padilla up, okay, that's the way life is during a war... but first they have to show that evidence.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

After seeing how the no-fly list is being handled (you can get on it, but you can't get off it, just ask Ted Kennedy and others who have opposed the Bush administration) I fear this ruling just opens the door for disappearence of anyone speaks out against government.

Just as a side note, if George Washington was the first George to hold the office of president, and George Herbert Walker Bush was the second, wouldn't that mean the current occupant of the White House is George III? It seems to me we had some trouble with that king before.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

It'll go to the Supreme Court, and I can't see them refusing cert on this one. At which point there's a good chance that BushCo will get a RUDE surprise...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I hold hopes that the outcome will at least _mention_ the purpose of our constitution and the deep-seated fear our Founding Persons held of arbitrary and tyrannical government....