Second Circuit Hears Padilla v. Rumsfeld
Court Weighs U.S. Citizen’s Constitutional Rights against Executive’s “War on Terror”

NEW YORK - NOV. 17 -- The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard Padilla v. Rumsfeld this morning, and will decide whether the U.S. government has the right to imprison a United States citizen indefinitely without charge and without access to a lawyer.

“The executive has asserted unprecedented authority in the Padilla case,” said Michael Posner, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. “We are hopeful that the court will act swiftly to secure Mr. Padilla's constitutional rights. If the government’s arguments prevail, will represent a major and unprecedented shift in how our Constitution is applied.”

Mr. Padilla was arrested by police at Chicago O’Hare Airport in May 2002 and initially held in New York as a material witness in the government’s ongoing counterterrorism investigations. In June 2002, the president designated Mr. Padilla an “enemy combatant,” and he was removed from his New York prison cell to a military brig in South Carolina. He has been held in that brig ever since, barred from communicating with his lawyers for 15 months.

The Lawyers Committee coordinated three “friend of the court,” or amicus briefs in the case.

Background on the case of Jose Padilla is available in Chapter 4 of LCHR's report Assessing the New Normal.