Legal Briefs in Padilla v. Rumsfeld:
Challenging President's Ability to Detain U.S. Citizen Without Charge

The Human Rights First has coordinated three friend-of-the-court (amicus) briefs in Padilla v. Rumsfeld. Oral arguments in the case took place on Monday, November 17, 2024 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan.

Arguments began at 10 a.m. before a panel of three judges.

Jenny Martinez, a Stanford Law professor who wrote one of the amicus briefs coordinated by the Human Rights First, participated in oral arguments. She argued that the Executive lacks the constitutional and statutory authority to detain Mr. Padilla as an “enemy combatant,” without charge, trial, or access to an attorney.

The three amicus briefs coordinated by the Human Rights First are:

Amicus Brief: Executive Seizure Violates Domestic Law

Amicus Brief: Padilla's Detention Violates Constitutional Due
Process Protections

Amicus Brief: Padilla's Detention Violates International "Laws of War"

Background on the case:

Padilla v. Rumsfeld is an unprecedented case concerning Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn-born U.S. citizen accused of plotting to set off a “dirty bomb” in the United States. The case raises profound questions about the Executive’s authority to seize U.S. citizens and unilaterally remove them from the constitutional protections the U.S. Founders provided.

On May 8, 2002, Mr. Padilla was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on the basis of information obtained from the interrogation of a senior Al Qaeda official. He was originally arrested under a material witness warrant issued by a federal district court in New York, but the district court made clear that he would eventually have to be charged or released.

Even while proceedings were pending, the Executive abruptly classified Mr. Padilla as an “enemy combatant” and ordered military personnel to enter the prison where he was being held. They seized him and transported him to a military brig in South Carolina - without informing his lawyer. Mr. Padilla has remained in the military brig ever since, barred from asserting his innocence or from communicating with his family or lawyer in any way. Except for his captors, no one has any idea what is happening to Mr. Padilla within that brig.