U.S. Court Orders ‘Enemy Combatant’ Freed

2 hours, 3 minutes ago

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge ruled on Monday that President Bush (news - web sites) has no authority to order an American citizen jailed indefinitely as an enemy combatant, and ordered terrorism suspect Jose Padilla be released within 45 days.

Padilla, who at one time was accused of plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb,” was arrested in May 2002 and has been held without charge in a South Carolina Navy prison under sweeping presidential powers enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks.

A Justice Department (news - web sites) official in Washington said the department would appeal the court’s decision.

Bush had designated Padilla an “enemy combatant” but U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd ruled that the president had no authority to hold Padilla or to suspend his right to due legal process.

“The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold Petitioner as an enemy combatant,” Floyd ruled in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Floyd said the case was a law enforcement matter, not a military one, and that unless Padilla is charged with a crime, he should be freed.

“If the law in its current state is found by the president to be insufficient to protect this country from terrorist plots, such as the one alleged here, then the president should prevail upon Congress to remedy the problem,” said Floyd, who was appointed to the federal bench by Bush in 2003.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and convert to Islam, is a U.S. citizen who was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said at the time that Padilla was suspected of plotting with al Qaeda to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the United States.

U.S. officials later backed off that claim and said Padilla had plotted with al Qaeda’s leaders to blow up apartment buildings by using natural gas. None of the plots was carried out.

Padilla’s attorneys argued that Bush overstepped his authority in ordering the detention, and a federal appeals court in New York ordered Padilla’s release.

The government appealed and argued that Bush did have authority to detain Padilla.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) ruled that the New York court lacked jurisdiction but allowed the case to be filed again in South Carolina.

The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) called the ruling “yet another setback to the administration’s misguided belief that it does not have to follow our constitutional traditions in pursuing terrorists.”

“As Judge Floyd recognized in his opinion, President Bush’s actions in the Padilla case flout the checks and balances that ensure our democracy and liberty,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

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