Padilla Rejected by Supreme Court on Combatant Status

April 3 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Supreme Court turned away an appeal from accused terrorism supporter Jose Padilla, refusing to question the Bush administration’s authority to capture American citizens on domestic soil and hold them as “enemy combatants.”

Padilla, arrested in Chicago in 2002, was held without charges by the military for more than three years before being indicted in November on charges of conspiring to help terrorists. The justices today announced in Washington they had voted 6-3 not to hear Padilla’s arguments, at least in part because the charges in civilian court had changed the nature of the case.

“Even if the court were to rule in Padilla’s favor, his present custody status would be unaffected,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for himself, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice John Paul Stevens, all of whom voted not to hear the case.

The rejection is a win for the Bush administration, which maneuvered for months to prevent high court review.

Justices David Souter, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted to hear the case, leaving the court one vote short of the number needed to grant a hearing. Ginsburg said Padilla was at risk of again being held as an enemy combatant after resolution of his case in civilian court.

“Nothing prevents the executive from returning to the road it earlier constructed and defended,” she wrote.

The court’s three other justices — Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — made no comment.

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/05-533Kennedy.pdf

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/05-533Ginsburg.pdf

KJ