More Padilla

The 4th Court blasted the BushCo morons in it's refusal to accept their 'emergency' plea to vacate their previous order and let the military turn Padilla over to the civil authorities. The telling part of this is that the 'author' of the ruling is Michael Lustig, formerly on Shrub's short list of SCOTUS nominees. Just amazing. Kevin has the best take on this I've read.

So the Justice Department came up with a brainstorm: at the last minute, it asked the 4th Circuit to vacate the government's big victory and transfer Padilla to the civilian court system, where they planned to charge him not with being a dirty bomber, not even with planning to blow up apartment buildings, but with a humdrum variety of low-level conspiracy charges.

Today, the 4th Circuit announced that it was not amused:

The government has held Padilla militarily for three and a half years, steadfastly maintaining that it was imperative in the interest of national security that he be so held. However, a short time after our decision issued on the government’s representation that Padilla’s military custody was indeed necessary in the interest of national security, the government determined that it was no longer necessary that Padilla be held militarily.

....In a plea that was notable given that the government had held Padilla militarily for three and a half years and that the Supreme Court was expected within only days either to deny certiorari or to assume jurisdiction over the case for eventual disposition on the merits, the government urged that we act as expeditiously as possible to authorize the transfer [to a civilian court]. The government styled its motion as an “emergency application,” but it provided no explanation as to what comprised the asserted exigency.

...

.... No wonder Luttig was pissed. He was one of the ones who thought the Bush administration took this stuff seriously.