Court filings re Padilla case; Bush called threat to rights

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Court filings rip Bush on Padilla case; President called threat to
rights
By Tom Brune, Chicago Tribune Newspapers
Newsday - August 6, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Terrorism suspect Jose Padilla has been isolated in a naval brig for more than a year, ever since President Bush classified him as an enemy combatant and called him a "threat to the nation."

But last week, nine thick friend-of-the-court briefs were filed in Padilla's appellate case, arguing against what they see as just as serious a threat to the nation: Bush's assertion that he can, as commander-in-chief, order the military to detain indefinitely--without charges, a trial or access to a lawyer--an American citizen picked up on U.S. soil.

"The precedent the executive [Bush] asks this court to set represents one of the gravest threats to the rule of law, and to the liberty our Constitution enshrines, that the nation has ever faced," said one brief by 14 retired federal appellate judges and former government officials, including Abner Mikva, Harold Tyler and Philip Allen Lacovara.

Other briefs argued that Bush's assertion is "unprecedented and shocks the conscience"and poses "a grave threat to the constitutional rights of all Americans."

The strong language of the briefs sets the tone for the constitutional battle being fought over Padilla's right to challenge his detention.

Federal authorities arrested Padilla as he arrived on a flight to Chicago on May 8, 2002, accusing him of meeting with Al Qaeda terrorists in a plan to set off a radiological bomb in Washington. The 2nd Circuit Court of ppeals in Manhattan is hearing an appeal by the government of the Dec. 4 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey that Padilla has the right to meet with an attorney to help him challenge his detention.

The briefs challenge the president's assertion of his powers from a
constitutional point of view, as argued in the brief filed by the American Bar Association, and under international law, as in a brief by experts including Stephen Saltzburg, general counsel for the National Institute of Military Justice.

Among those filing briefs is a collaboration of libertarian groups, including the Cato Institute and Rutherford Institute on the right, the Constitution Project in the middle and People for the American Way and Center for National Security Studies on the left.