The Court also argued that this case was easily distinguished from Hamdi (2002) because Newman already had a preexisting relationship with Padilla.
The government also argued that the District Court of the Southern District of New York did not have jurisdiction, since the prisoner was currently housed in Charleston, South Carolina (Padilla ex rel. Newman v. Bush, 2002). The Court rejected this argument in addition to making five other decisions: (1) Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was the proper respondent to the habeas petition, (2) the Court had jurisdiction over Rumsfeld, (3) the President is authorized to designate Padilla an enemy combatant (without judging its merits) and therefore detain him for the duration of hostilities, (4) Padilla has a right to counsel, and (5) denied the motion to transfer the case to South Carolina. The Court ordered the parties to discuss arrangements to grant counsel access to the prisoner and scheduled a preliminary habeas hearing for December 30, 2002.
The Reach of Executive War Powers.
In response to Hamdi's father's habeas petition the District Court granted the father next friend status and appointed public defender Dunham as counsel (Hamdi II, 2002). The argument put forward by the petitioners was that Hamdi deserved all the rights and protections afforded to anyone accused of committing a crime under the Fifth and Fourth Amendments. The District Court agreed and ordered the military to grant Dunham unmonitored access to Hamdi. The government appealed this decision to the 4th Circuit and obtained a stay on the order. The 4th Circuit further ordered the District Court to consider the government's evidence that Hamdi is an enemy combatant. The 4th Circuit's rationale for this decision was that the District Court ignored the possibility that granting access to Hamdi could harm National Security interests.
When the government finally presented its case for designating Hamdi an enemy combatant, along with a motion to dismiss the habeas petition, the District Court reacted strongly to the assertion that the designation 'enemy combatant' allows the government to detain anyone indefinitely on the government's say-so (Hamdi III, 2003). The District Court ordered the government to turn over all the evidence collected, including all statements made by Hamdi and Northern Alliance witnesses. In essence, the District Court was approaching this case as if it were a domestic criminal case with all the relevant protections for the accused.
When the order to produce was appealed, the 4th Circuit agreed with the government that the War Powers under Articles I and II required the courts to give considerable deference to the Commander in Chief during wartime (Hamdi III, 2003). In reaching this decision, the 4th Circuit held that (1) all detained American citizens have the right to judicial review, (2) the government has the right to detain captured enemy forces during hostilities to prevent them from returning to the battlefield, and (3) imposing the burden of litigation to assess the disposition of captured soldiers during wartime would interfere with war's prosecution. The petitioner's argument that Hamdi's detention is illegal under U.S. law and the Geneva Convention was also discarded. Instead, the 4th Circuit held that his detention was in fact legal after Congress authorized the President to attack Al Qaeda and the Taliban and that the Geneva Convention does not preclude detaining lawful or unlawful prisoners of war.
The 4th Circuit then dismissed the lower court's order to produce evidence to substantiate the enemy combatant designation for Hamdi (Hamdi III, 2003). In essence, the appellate court viewed the order as irresponsible and an intrusion into the war-making powers of the U.S. government's political branches. As to the enemy combatant status of Hamdi, the 4th Circuit held that such designations are the prerogative of the Executive and that absent evidence of abuse of power, Article III courts should not intervene. By reaching this decision, the 4th Circuit claimed to have given the writ of habeas corpus adequate attention; however, given the deference afforded the Commander in Chief during wartime the relief sought could not be granted.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments by the government to dismiss Padilla's writ for habeas corpus and to transfer the case to South Carolina (Padilla v. Rumsfeld, 2003). The 2nd Circuit rejected the claim that Newman could not be next friend for Padilla and found that Rumsfeld was the proper respondent. The Appellate Court then addressed the issue of whether the President's war powers as Commander in Chief gave him the authority to designate...
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