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02/28/2005:

"Federal Judge Orders 'Enemy Combatant' Jose Padilla Charged Or Released"

A federal judge in Spartanburg has ordered that an American citizen held as an enemy combatant in a Navy brig in Charleston should be released.

U.S. District Judge Henry F. Floyd ruled Monday that the president of the United States does not have the authority to order Jose Padilla to be held.

"If the law in its current state is found by the president to be insufficient to protect this country from terrorist plots, such as the one alleged here, then the president should prevail upon Congress to remedy the problem," he wrote.

In the ruling, Floyd said that three court cases that the government used to make its claim did not sufficiently apply to Padilla's case.

Floyd wrote that, in essence, "the detention of a United States citizen by the military is disallowed without explicit Congressional authorization."
Full Article: news.yahoo.com