Monday, June 13, 2005
PADILLA WATCH Earlier today, from Bloomberg:
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a chance to scrutinize the Bush administration's anti-terror tactics, refusing to intervene in the case of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charges since 2002.
Padilla, arrested in Chicago and later accused of plotting to blow up apartment buildings, asked the justices to take the unusual step of bypassing the appeals court level in his case. A federal trial judge ruled in February that the U.S. must either charge Padilla with a crime, hold him as a material witness or release him.
``Further delay poses real risks to security and liberty,'' Padilla's lawyers argued in court papers filed in Washington.
The rejection is at least a temporary victory for the Justice Department, which urged the court not to get involved. U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement told the high court it should let the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, proceed with a scheduled July 19 argument on the government's appeal.
