Word: padilla
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Padilla's path from the brig to a Miami courtroom has been riddled with fits and starts. On June 11 in New York (where he had first been held), the ACLU filed a petition for Padilla's release, arguing that as an American citizen captured on U.S. soil, he had to be let go or charged and tried in a civilian court. In December 2003, a federal appeals court in New York agreed, but then the government dodged a bullet: the Supreme Court ruled that Padilla's petition should have been filed in South Carolina, not New York...
...Padilla took another shot. This time, a federal judge in South Carolina ruled in his favor. But in September 2005 the Fourth Circuit court of appeals decided that, American citizen or not, Padilla could be held by the military indefinitely under the congressional resolution authorizing the war in Afghanistan. His lawyers asked the Supreme Court to review the case...
...Meanwhile, the legal landscape had shifted. In June 2004, the justices had ruled that Yaser Hamdi, also an American citizen and an enemy combatant after capture in Afghanistan, could challenge his detention in court. Padilla's case seemed at least as strong (he was arrested in the U.S.), and while we can't be sure that made the difference, the government decided in November to move Padilla to civilian custody and charge him in federal court...
...This shift in strategy did not go over well with the Fourth Circuit, which blocked the transfer until the feds could explain what looked like an improper attempt to manipulate the case. No matter. In April 2006 the Supreme Court refused to hear Padilla's appeal and allowed the criminal charges to proceed before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke...
...Cooke has also given the government headaches. The case, which consists of three counts against Padilla and his co-defendants for "conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim" and give "material support" to terrorist activity, "is very light on the facts," she told prosecutors during a pre-trial hearing last summer. Just as significant, Cooke threw out the "conspiracy to murder" count because, she ruled, it duplicated the conspiracy mentioned in the two other counts. Her decision would have eliminated the possibility of a life sentence, leaving a maximum of 15 years in prison for each defendant, had it not been...