Democracy Now: Padilla Torture Appeal Rejected by Supreme Court
In a separate decision, the Supreme Court also rejected an appeal from the former so-called “enemy combatant” José Padilla to reinstate a lawsuit seeking to hold former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other officials responsible for Padilla’s torture. Padilla was jailed for 43 months without charge in a Navy brig in South Carolina and is now serving a 17-year sentence. In denying Padilla’s appeal, the court let stand a federal appeals court ruling that his designation as an “enemy combatant” precluded him from the right to sue for alleged violations of constitutional rights, and that such cases are not entitled to judicial review. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union said: “The Supreme Court’s refusal to consider Jose Padilla’s case leaves in place a blank check for government officials to commit any abuse in the name of national security, even the brutal torture of an American citizen in an American prison.”
