Padilla Trouble for the Government

The government has had a ruling authorizing them to hold Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant partially reversed by the court that gave it. The ruling, which was about whether the government could transfer Padilla to a jail from his detention cell in a Navy brig in South Carolina, appears to be a rebuff of the Bush Administration, who has now indicted Padilla for crimes that are different than those for which he was previously held.

"The significance of the action was unclear, but some lawyers thought it signaled annoyance with the government. Eugene R. Fidell, a Washington lawyer who closely follows detainee issues, said, 'It's hard to tell, but this appears to be a rebuff to the administration.'

Mr. Fidell said it was possible that the judges felt ill used in expending the court's institutional capital on issuing its Padilla ruling only to have the government decide to leave it unused."

There have been suggestions that the governments change in the status of Padilla was an effort to avoid a challenge of the 4th circuit ruling that authorized the detention of Padilla, a U.S. citizen, as an "enemy combatant" in front of the Supreme Court, which has given the Administration less leeway in its rulings on terrorism suspects. Others suggest that the U.S. government wants to try him first for aiding a terrorist organization and plotting to kill people overseas, and if his acquitted of those charges, reclassify him as an "enemy combatant".