The Law of War

eight of the nine justices of the Court agreed that the Executive Branch does not have
the power to hold indefinitely a U.S. citizen without basic due process protections
enforceable through judicial review.
On 8 May 2002, José Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, was arrested by FBI
agents at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and held as material witness on the
warrant issued in New York State about the 2001 9/11 attacks. On 9 June 2002
President Bush issued an order to Secretary Rumsfeld to detain Padilla as an "enemy
combatant". The order justified the detention by leaning on the AUMF which authorized
the President to "use all necessary force against those nations, organizations, or
persons" and in the opinion of the administration a U.S. citizen can be an enemy
combatant (this was decided by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Ex
parte Quirin). Padilla is being detained in Miami and is accused of providing material
support for terrorism.
The 13 November 2001, Military Order, mentioned above, exempts U.S. citizens
from trial by military tribunals to determine if they are "unlawful combatants",
which indicates that Padilla and Yaser Hamdi would end up in the civilian criminal
justice system, as happened with John Walker Lindh.
On 18 December 2003, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declared that the
Bush Administration lacked the authority to detain a U.S. citizen arrested on U.S.
soil as an "illegal enemy combatant" without clear congressional authorization
(per 18 U.S.C. § 4001(a)); it consequently ordered the government to release
Padilla from military custody within thirty days. But agreed that he could be held
until an appeal was heard.
On 20 February 2004, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the government's
appeal.
The Supreme Court heard the case, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, in April 2004, but on 28
June it was thrown out on a technicality. The court declared that New York State,
where the case was originally filed, was an improper venue and that the case
should have been filed in South Carolina, where Padilla was being held.
On 28 February 2005, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S. District Judge Henry
Floyd ordered the Bush administration to either charge Padilla or release him. He
relied on the Supreme Court's ruling in the parallel enemy combatant case of
Yaser Hamdi (Hamdi v. Rumsfeld), in which the majority decision declared a
"state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of
the nation's citizens".
On 19 July 2005, in Richmond, Virginia, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
began hearing the government's appeal of the lower court (the District of South
Carolina, at Charleston) ruling by Henry F. Floyd, District Judge, (CA-04-2221-
26AJ). Their ruling, decided 9 September 2005, was that "the President does
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