U.S. Reasserts Right to Declare Citizens to Be Enemy Combatants

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

Published: January 8, 2004

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - The Bush administration on Wednesday reasserted its broad authority to declare American citizens to be enemy combatants, and it suggested that the Supreme Court consider two prominent cases at the same time.

The Justice Department, in a brief filed with the court, said it would seek an expedited appeal of a federal appeals court decision last month in the case of Jose Padilla, jailed as an enemy combatant in 2002.

The divided Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, ruled on Dec. 18 that President Bush lacked the authority to indefinitely detain an American citizen like Mr. Padilla who was arrested on American soil simply by declaring him an enemy combatant. Mr. Padilla has been held incommunicado at a military brig in South Carolina. American authorities say he plotted with operatives of Al Qaeda overseas to detonate a "dirty" radiological bomb in the United States.

But the Justice Department said in its brief that the ruling was "fundamentally at odds" with court precedent on presidential powers.

The decision "undermines the president's constitutional authority to protect the nation," Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson wrote.(emphasis mine)

In ruling that President Bush lacked the authority to indefinitely detain a US citizen, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit simply reaffirmed the basic protections of the Constitution for US citizens. In advocating for the use of "enemy combatant" status for US citizens, the Bush administration is undermining the foundation of the Republic. The Administration is actively working to undermine the document its members have sworn to uphold and protect.

From Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

What does the arbitrary detention of a U.S. citizen, idefinitely and without charge, have to do with preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution? Nothing beyond the attempt to undermine and subvert it. This is how America will come under the yoke of tyranny. It will not come through violent revolution, it will come quietly, like a thief in the night. And this is but the beginning...