The Bush administration succeeded Monday in its effort to keep the case of Jose Padilla, an American-born former enemy combatant, off the Supreme Court's docket.
The Court denied review in Padilla's case, as requested by the Justice Department, which argued that because Padilla is no longer in military custody, his challenge to his detention as an enemy combatant is moot. But statements from the justices indicated that his case was a close call.
Three justices said they would have granted review in Padilla v. Hanft -- one vote short of the Court's traditional requirement of four justices to add a case to the docket. The case asked whether President George W. Bush had the authority to detain Padilla as an enemy combatant.
"It's troubling that the Court has allowed the administration to escape a ruling in the merits of the enemy-combatant issue," said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias, who has monitored the case.
The New York-born Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after returning from what the government says were al Qaeda training sessions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Despite his U.S. citizenship, Padilla was designated an enemy combatant and held in a military brig. After his challenge to his imprisonment failed before the Supreme Court in 2004 for jurisdictional reasons, Padilla refiled his plea in the District of South Carolina.
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