The El Supremo's have just handed (it seems) the 1600 Crew another victory in their war on Everyone who's not a Rich White Guy Campaign Contributor. They've rejected an appeal from Jose Padilla, the so-called "dirty bomber".
The Supreme Court refused Monday to be drawn into a dispute over President Bush's power to detain American terror suspects and deny them traditional legal rights.
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... justices declined to address a separate issue: whether American citizens arrested on U.S. soil can be designated "enemy combatants" and held without trial.
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Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, said the lower court ruling "marks a substantial judicial intrusion into the core presidential function of determining how best to ensure the nation's security."
I guess Clement has not quite gotten to the point where he can just come right out and say "we can lock up any fucking person we want. What fucking Constitution...it's the War on Terra™ you fucking morons". But I suspect that day is fast approaching. And Congress will be licking the asses of campaign contributors and the press will be licking everyone elses asses as it happens.
Never underestimate the power of Fascism and the speed that totalitarianism can become ascendant...ever.
posted by Jo Fish on 06.13.05 at 04:34 PM
Comments:
Padilla's attorneys tried to avoid the appeals court and the Supremes don't want to deal with the case until after the appeals court makes a ruling.
Well.... At the risk of being a Pollyanna optimist here, note that the appeal which the Supremes rejected was an attempt by Padilla's lawyers to, in effect, "jump the chain of command" by trying to provoke the Supremes to rule while the 4th Circuit is still considering the appeal from the Federal District Court (the 4th Circuit won't even be hearing arguments in the Padilla case until July).
So the bAdministration's "victory" here isn't that big a deal. In effect, the Court is saying, "not yet".
Keep in mind that the Court's in summer recess, too (IIRC, or will be going into summer recess shortly), and probably the Justices are not inclined to screw up their vacations for someone like Padilla.
Just the obvious comes to mind, even Timothy McVeigh got due process and acording to a report on Slate the activities of right-wing terror groups are on the rise.
The Supremes went out of their way to torture legalistic technicalities to keep Padilla IN jail; they're sure as hell not going to overlook such technicalities in order to spring him. So the man's been in for three years? So he has no useful information for interrogation purposees? So what if there is no evidence whatsoever of the supposed dirty bomb plot, or of anything else other than the President says he's a bad duded? Isn't that good enough under our Constitution? I mean, the President man... he like gets to lock people up 'cause he's the commander, right?
