I know that it is considered moot, but that doesn’t make Padilla “whole” for the three years he spent as an enemy combatant. That would be the basis for the “tort” or “injury” underpinning the case.
Padilla would have to start all over again and charge a violation of his civil rights, and I’m not sure he would want to do it.
]]>Of course the Constitution is imperiled, but it is not a person within its own meaning. Without a person at the bar, the justices have nothing to go on.
]]>When I read your subject line, Bryan, I thought you were prepared to rant about those little rowboats without which limerick writers may as well retire. Who knew the Justices were also fond of them!
]]>But the fact that the Shrubbery has transferred Padilla to the jurisdiction of the federal court system renders this appeal essentially moot. The Supreme Court has always resisted ruling on hypothetical situations, ad on second-guessing after the fact. And you’re damn right I think that tradition is Reason #1 behind the Bushoviki’s decision to transfer Padilla to the ordinary courts. Once he’s no longer held incommunicado as an enemy combatant, instant dismissal of the case. Short, sweet, and most importantly of all, nobody from the Shrubbery has to go on the witness stand and swear to tell all sorts of revealing and potentially highly embarrassing things about the innermost workings of the Bush misadministration.
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