Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness

Dirty Bombs Done Dirt Cheap

My buddy. My buddy. Wherever I go... heeee goes. My buddy. My buddy. I'll teach him everything that I-iiiii know.

The authoritarian agitators must be thinking: with judicial friends like this, who needs activitists? And by friends, I mean someone who was on the very short list of Supreme Court nominees, and who endorsed by the most craven Administration sycophants. Here are some excerpts from the decision issued by Judge Luttig, which reads like a 14-page judicial equivalent of Elisabeth Shue's "You're not strong, you're just a bully!" break-up/ultimatum delivered to Billy Zabka on the beach in The Karate Kid:

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...

... First, the government’s actions since this court’s decision issued on September 9, culminating in and including its urging that our opinion be withdrawn, together with the timing of these actions in relation both to the period for which Padilla has already been held and to the government’s scheduled response to Padilla’s certiorari petition in the Supreme Court, have given rise to at least an appearance that the purpose of these actions may be to avoid consideration of our decision by the Supreme Court...

... For, as the government surely must understand, although the various facts it has asserted are not necessarily inconsistent or without basis, its actions have left not only the impression that Padilla may have been held for these years, even if justifiably, by mistake –- an impression we would have thought the government could ill afford to leave extant.

First of all, that speech did happen, right? In any event, I've detailed the long, strange trip of Jose Padilla, an American citizen held for 42 months in a military prison without charges, here, here, and here. In fact, I'm going to quote from one of my very few correct reads in the existence of this website:

Somebody in the Justice Department got the memo that the Klintoon terrorist-appeasor appointees have once again worked their nefarious magic to influence Stevens, Souter and Kennedy to actually believe that the due process provisions of the Constitution apply to people regardless of hysterical executive fiat. Therefore, to clear this likely reversal of the retrograde 4th Circuit decision off the docket (a recurrent theme in the Bush Administration's legal strategy), they've tearfully decided to actually prosecute rather than persecute Padilla (ed: on different grounds that the shit they leaked back in 2002).

In essence, this is a court beginning to sense that the Administration to whom they are providing unlimited detention powers is, in practice, not comprised of very serious people. Or, put another way, they went out on a limb to prove that they're no judicial activists by becoming fans of executive activism, only to revert back to begin judicial activists by insisting that appellate procedure be followed. Keep in mind that the term "judicial activism" means absolutely nothing. More on this case and other issues of "trust me, I'm with the government" at Professor Bérubé's place.

Posted by Norbizness at December 22, 2005 12:07 AM