Padilla v. Rumsfeld

Padilla v. Rumsfeld

Padilla v. Rumsfeld was a case before the U.S. Supreme Court which presented the issue of whether a U.S. citizen seized on U.S. soil and declared an “enemy combatant” could be held incommunicado and indefinitely in military custody.  Public Justice joined in an amici brief to the Supreme Court authored by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation in April 2004 to argue that Jose Padilla was entitled to the same constitutional protections as any other U.S. citizen.  On June 28, 2004, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit based on technical grounds, finding that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld was an improper respondent to Padilla’s habeas petition, and the petition had been filed in the the wrong district.  The Court did not reach the merits of the case.