US: The Bush administration won a significant legal victory in the "war on terror" yesterday when the US Supreme Court refused to question the government's power to hold US citizens indefinitely as enemy combatants, even those captured on US soil.
The justices voted 6-3 not to review the case of José Padilla, one of the most high-profile cases testing the administration's anti-terrorism powers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Mr Padilla, a US citizen captured in Chicago, was held in military detention without charges for three years before the government decided to try him in the civilian court system. The shift to try Mr Padilla as a civilian was widely criticised as an attempt by the administration to avoid a Supreme Court review of the case. The tactic appears to have worked. Three justices who held the balance of power in the case - Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Justice John Paul Stevens - took the unusual step of issuing an opinion to justify their refusal to hear the case, saying that he is no longer being held as an enemy combatant.
Jennifer Daskal, of Human Rights Watch, said: "It's a shame that the Supreme Court didn't use this opportunity to address the claim of the United States that it can pick up anybody on US soil in connection with the war on terror."
Justice Ruth Ginsburg said Mr Padilla risked being put back into military custody at the end of his civilian trial.- (F T service)