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.