On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute President Commends U.S. Supreme Court Decision to Limit President's Power to Detain 'Enemy Combatants'
Although President Still Has Power to Detain U. S. Citizens Suspected of Being "Enemy Combatants" Without Charge, Court Rules That Detainees Must Have Access to the CourtsWASHINGTON, D.C.--In a 6-to-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that prisoners seized as potential terrorists and held for more than two years at a U.S. military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba may challenge their captivity in American courts. In related cases, the court ruled that the Bush administration does have the power to detain Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen suspected of aiding the enemy, without charges or trial, but that Hamdi has a right to challenge his treatment in federal court. The court dismissed the case of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen whom the Bush administration has labeled an "enemy combatant" and accused of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb" without addressing the merits of his case, ruling that the case should have been brought in South Carolina, where Padilla has been held for the last two years, instead of New York. In so holding, Chief Justice Rehnquist allowed for Padilla to bring his case again in South Carolina. Taken together, the rulings made clear the court's insistence that so-called "enemy combatants" must have access to the courts. As Justice O'Connor wrote in the Hamdi case, which involves issues similar to those in the Padilla case, "he (Hamdi) unquestionably has the right to access to counsel."
"Of course, we're disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Jose Padilla's case and refused to address the broader human rights and civil liberties issues surrounding the Bush administration's practice of jailing U.S. citizens without charge or access to a lawyer," stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "However, we're pleased that the court's ruling chastised the Administration for refusing to allow these so-called 'enemy combatants' access to the courts. It is our hope that all Americans would remember that our constitutional rights and freedoms must apply to all citizens, not just to those to whom our government decides to grant them."
Attorneys with The Rutherford Institute, People for the American Way, and Human Rights First (formally the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) filed a "friend of the court" brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Jose Padilla. The brief challenged the Bush administration's right to hold Padilla indefinitely without charge as a suspected "enemy combatant." The brief filed by the coalition of organizations argued that while "[o]ur nation has repeatedly faced perilous threats to its security and even its survival....not only from aliens, but from citizens who, through espionage, treason, bombings, and other overt and covert acts of violence, have taken the lives of fellow citizens and threatened to destroy the nation," the threat we face today, though undeniably grave, is not unprecedented. "What is unprecedented," stated the brief, "is the executive branch's claim of a unilateral power to detain citizens it deems to be 'enemy combatants.'" A PDF of the coalition's arguments is available here.
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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