On The Front Lines
The Rutherford Institute Files Joint Brief on Behalf of Jose Padilla, American Citizen Detained as 'Enemy Combatant'
Amicus Brief Challenges President Bush's Right to Detain U.S. Citizens Without ChargeNEW YORK--In a joint brief to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, attorneys with The Rutherford Institute, the Cato Institute, the Center for National Security Studies, the Constitution Project, People for the American Way and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights have asked the court to address the question of whether an American citizen arrested on U.S. soil can be held incommunicado in a military prison without being charged with a crime or given access to an attorney. In filing a friend of the court brief on behalf of Jose Padilla, the American labeled by the Bush Administration as an "enemy combatant" and accused of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb," the six public interest organizations have requested that the court support Padilla's fundamental right as an American citizen to not be held indefinitely without charge.
FBI officials arrested Jose Padilla at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002, as a material witness in a plot to detonate a "dirty bomb" in the United States. Held in solitary confinement in a military brig in South Carolina since June 9, 2002, when President Bush declared him to be an "enemy combatant," Padilla has yet to be charged with a crime or allowed to see a lawyer. Citing the Constitution's ban against indefinite executive detention, the public interest groups argue that "[t]he Framers deliberately vested the Legislature with the power to make law, and denied to the Executive any unilateral authority to determine when people may be detained indefinitely without charge. The Constitution gives the Legislature--and only the Legislature--power to determine when, if ever, extraordinary circumstances authorize the fundamentally intrusive power of detention without charge." The amicus brief asks the court to observe an express congressional directive forbidding the detainment of American citizens without specific statutory authorization.
"To jail an American citizen indefinitely on one person's unreviewable declaration that he is the 'enemy' --even if that person is the president of the United States of America--is fundamentally in opposition to his rights as an American," stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Making someone 'disappear' so as to be held incommunicado because he is regarded as the 'enemy' is far beyond the pale of what America is supposed to stand for."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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Resources:
TRI Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Determine Constitutionality of President's Power to Detain 'Enemy Combatant'
Commentary: Should Jose Padilla Have His Day In Court?
Rutherford Institute Looks To U.S. Supreme Court To Determine Constitutionality of President's Power to Detain 'Enemy Combatant'
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