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Judge Orders US to Charge Padilla or Free Him
Jose Padilla is not the best American citizen around. He's a former gang member and seems to be tied to Al Qaeda in one way or another. He's been in prison since May of 2002, though, without a charge or indictment against him. The Bush administration has labeled him an "enemy combatant" and tossed him into military jail in South Carolina. Now, along comes Judge Henry Floyd, appointed to the federal bench by Mr. Bush in 2003, who says the government has 45 days to free Padilla or charge him with a crime. This is a real victory for America in the war on terror.
The Bush administration, yielding to the totalitarian instincts in all politicians, has denied Mr. Padilla his rights under the Sixth Amendment, which reads in full:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
Mr. Padilla, an American citizen, is still waiting for the enforcement of these rights. The White House says he isn't entitled to these rights because of his participation in Al Qaeda's war against America. His detention may, according to the White House, have prevented terror attacks against the nation. Above all, it is a military detention not a criminal one, according to the Bushites.
Judge Floyd wasn't buying it. Mr. Padilla was not captured on a battlefield but at O'Hare airport (and no matter how bad the luggage claim area there may be, it doesn't count as a battlefield under international law). The charge that he was plotting to set off a radiological device (a "dirty bomb") has quietly vanished from the government's latest accusations. He is now only suspected of plotting to blow up apartment buildings using the natural gas they use for heating. If so, Judge Floyd merely wants proof.
"The court finds," wrote the good judge, "that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold Petitioner [Mr. Padilla] as an enemy combatant." He added, "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."
Judge Floyd has summed up the entire problem with the Bush administration's approach to the war against Al Qaeda. If America is to be a nation of laws, its actions must occur under some legal construct. Denying an American citizen his rights under the constitution without a legal pretext is unconscionable (and with one, it remains an ugly and doubtful thing). But if Mr Bush wishes to speak of the hard work of the presidency, that is it -- fighting a war on a terrorist enemy as the leader of an open society and free polity in such a was as to be both victorious and true to America's ideals. Thus far, one remains unimpressed but deeply worried.
© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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