The Court did "punt," but as a pure matter of law, they were correct. In a habeas proceeding, the defendant of record is the official that runs the institution keeping the prisoner.

In The History of Britain Simon Schama says, in effect, that Magna Carta was not the birth certificate of democracy, it was the death knell for despotism: no man, not even the king, is above the law.

Mr. Jose Padilla should be thankful that he lives in the greatest country that has ever existed on the face of the Earth. He is one of many millions who blame his failures on the system and become antisocial garvage. Thanks to the left who facilitate the sycle of poverty our jails are full of minoritys who grew up in the wellfare system and never had any goals in life. I a 36 year old Salvadoran about to earn my college degree and proud United States Marine and citizen laught when I hear the young kids in college tell me about life and how there should be no war. I'm not at all surprice since their entire life they had everything and have experienced nothing. GO BUSH !!!!!!

You're a PRO-war Salvadoran?! Jesucristo, that's hardcore.

So, Hector, what did your family think of the death squads Bush's Daddy sent down Salvador-way. I hope the college you're attending gives spelling and grammar lessons. Can you spell "Iran-Contra"?

Hector, there's plenty of white criminals that don't get thrown into jail bacause of our racist system (why isn't Ken Lay in jail when he ruined lots more lives than the black kid who carried an oz. of maryjane?) And I would say it's the repubs who are elevating the level of poverty in this country and you're blind if you don't see it.

The right wing is very, very alive and well in Latin America--my Father's half-brother was killed by them. That's all I know of the story--my Father has never discussed it.

Hector and his many brethren loathe, above all, Equality. To them the bullying impulse to oppress all they simply don't agree with or feel threatened by is something they never want to give up.

You and your filthy constitution-hater comrade's days are numbered, Hector. We know and live the real America, and we will take it back very soon.

hector, this is a great country despite bush. If your devotion to bush's cult of personality is greater than the oath you took to the constitution, well, what kind of marine is that?

Speaking of judges, you may want to go to Move on and sign their petition. The fight has begun.

Dear MoveOn member,

As we write this, the Senate is debating the nomination of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a lifetime appointment to the Circuit Court of Appeals -- the second highest court in the land. Myers is the first of 20 nominees Bush has re-submitted in his second term. All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by Senate Democrats (as compared to 204 judges they accepted) because these nominees consistently sided with corporate special interests over the rights of ordinary Americans.

The Senate has the power to approve or reject judicial nominations because judges -- above all else -- must be trusted by Americans on all sides to rule fairly. So why does Bush refuse to send new nominees both parties can agree on? Because while his presidency will be over in 4 years, the judges he appoints will be on the bench for the rest of their lives. This is Bush's big push to lock in his hard right, corporate-friendly ideology for decades to come -- and that is exactly why we must not back down now.

The fight begins today. The Myers vote is a key test -- and may well determine whether Bush can stack the judiciary, all the way up to the Supreme Court, with a steady stream of hard right, pro-corporate judges. It's crucial that our Senators know that we out here in America are counting on them to hold the line against all 20 of Bush's rejected, partisan judges.

Please sign today:

http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/

We will deliver your comments to your Senators before the crucial votes on these 20 judicial nominees.

Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan judges re-nominated by President Bush.

William Myers III has never been a judge and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining industry.[1] He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional because they interfere with potential profit.[2] In 2001, Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the Interior. In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests, setting his agenda in meetings with former employers he promised not to speak with, and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip mined.[3]

Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms. As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal laws barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability.[4] His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals, either due to gross errors in judgment or simple incompetence.[5]

William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama, where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco lawsuit until it was almost over, and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money for their healthcare system as a result.[6] He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the civil rights of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled.[7]

If we falter now, then decades down the road dozens of judges like this will still be ruling in favor of unchecked corporate greed and against the basic principles of accountability and fairness.

The Bush Administration is prepared to stop at nothing to smash Democratic resistance and stack the courts. As President of the Senate, Dick Cheney has even threatened to push these 20 through by using a parliamentary trick so abusive even he calls it the "nuclear option." If they can get away with it, the "nuclear option" would eliminate the right to filibuster -- a rule that has allowed 40 or more Senators to keep extremists from all sides off the courts for centuries.

If that happens, when Supreme Court vacancies begin to open up in a few months there will be no motivation for Bush to nominate justices acceptable to both parties, and no ability for Democrats to oppose even the most dangerous extremists.

We must draw the line here, by stopping Bush's 20 repeat nominees. They were rejected once -- they can and must be rejected again.

Please sign the petition today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/

Thanks for all that you do,

--Ben Brandzel, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn PAC Team

Hector, you should apply for a postion with the WH. They would love ya.

hector, don't listen to them whining liberals. that ole constitution, heck, it's just a dirty old rag; why, i was using it to get some bird poop off the windshield today. dear leader luvs ya!

Hector, your position, like bush's, is un-American. I suggest you read the constitution.

Hector, Hector!
The "greatest country that ever lived on the face of the earth"! By what criteria do you make such a statement. Help me out here readers. The United States ranks at the top of the polluter chain, the waste chain, the imprisoned chain, etc. For as rich a country as it is, the most homeless per capita, the most babies in poverty, one of very few modern industrialized nations with almost half its population uninsured. Christ! Get an education!

I love this country, Marine ....ahem. It can do a whole lot better, That's what us "liberals" are all about.

I probably don't have much in common with Jose Padilla besides being a U.S. citizen and having lived within a stones throw of Logan Square in Chicago. It may well be that he deserves the book thrown at him. But it sure better be a book of law and not just the word of a president that locks him up or being a U.S. citizen loses a lot of appeal for me.

We should ask ourselves how a former Latin King who had little education and a few jail stays, who worked at a Taco Bell before converting to Islam and going to Pakistan, was the guy Al Qaeda thought could build them a nuclear device and detonate it in a city (presumably Chicago). We should ask ourselves how far along he was in his plans. Apparently, they didn't nab him with a sketch or any materials. All he had was just this pathetic desire to please his new-found friends by blowing up a bomb he was somehow going dream up. We should ask ourselves why the authorities couldn't make a case in all this time or issue forth a formal charge based on the evidence.

Maybe the answers to this is the crime done to Padilla is somehow worse than the one he is charged with, since after all he isn't charged with a crime. Maybe I'm wrong and the FBI caught him with radioisotopes in his pockets and carefully detailed yield equations written under the brim of his baseball hat. Maybe he had fabricated a detonator out of a rebuilt starter off a Ford Fiesta. We don't know. We do know it is unconstitutional to hold a citizen without charge indefinately. When the courts no longer recognize this, the Jose Padilla's out there can blast away with their dream-built bombs all they want; there will be little worth saving.

Boy those lousy liberal activist judges really make me...oh wait..

BTW when I hear a guy praise a politician more than the Constitution, I know we're in trouble.

hector..never saw anyone spell with an accent before...who are you really?...

The Fourth Circuit, chock-full of neo-Confederates and Federalist Society moles, will reverse.

The Supreme Court will refuse to grant cert.

Padilla will never see the light of day.

And our own 21st century version of the old Bourbon lettres de cachet will enter American law....

and when i say i was using the constitution to get bird poop off the windshield i mean the help was doing it. but you probably figured that out yourself.

all hail dear leader!

Well, brace yourselves. Last night on Travis Smiley's Show, Ken Mehlman set forth the Republican agenda of ruling for a generation. If that be true, we won't need a Constitution and there will be hundreds of thousands of Mr. Jose Padillas in prisons.

there will be hundreds of thousands of Mr. Jose Padillas in prisons.

how is it that john walker lindh, captured on the field in afghanistan, gets a lawyer and a civilian trial, and padilla gets disappeared from o'hare airport? not white enough, i guess.

If memory serves me well, John Walker Lindh is from a prominent family in the US. Walker, hmmmm, that's interesting. The rest of us Padillas wouldn't have the luxury of the elite pulling our ass out of the prisons.

damn, judith, i forgot that's what the "W" stands for.

Dubya "Warmonger" forgot too