WASHINGTON — The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intervene in the case of alleged "dirty bomb" plotter Jose Padilla, contending that a lower court had no right to tell the Bush administration whether he should be tried in a criminal court or a military tribunal.
U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement petitioned the nation's highest court to overturn a ruling by an appellate court last week that essentially blocked Padilla, 35, from being transferred from a military brig in South Carolina to a federal prison in Miami, where prosecutors intend to try him on terrorism conspiracy charges.
Legal analysts said the strongly worded government petition did more than ask for a simple transfer of Padilla, who is a U.S. citizen, from military to civilian custody. Some said the case ultimately could set precedent over an array of legal disagreements between the White House and civil liberties advocates, particularly over the administration's aggressive use of executive power without seeking prior approval from the courts or Congress.
Last week, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. -- the same body that upheld the administration's right to designate Padilla as an enemy combatant in the first place -- issued a sharply worded ruling that rejected the administration's shift in strategy.
That opinion, written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, was considered by legal experts to be a major setback for the administration, in part because Luttig is considered to be one of the most conservative appeals court judges on one of the most conservative appellate courts in the nation. Luttig had been considered by Bush as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee
On Wednesday, the solicitor general, acting at the behest of the White House, contended in 27 pages of legal arguments that the appeals court had overstepped its authority when it blocked Padilla's transfer, and that in the process it had wrongly challenged a sitting president's right during wartime to protect the nation from a new and dangerous enemy.
"The 4th Circuit's order defies both law and logic," Clement wrote in his petition. "That unprecedented and unfounded assertion of judicial authority should be undone as expeditiously as possible by this court."
The government's motion came one day after Padilla's defense lawyers also petitioned the high court and asked its nine justices to use the case to resolve how much unchecked power a president should have when the nation is at war.
