Not in any way a surprise, although it was nice to dream of a cert. denial leaving in place the Second Circuit decision finding that Constitution has not been suspended.
Now that the Supreme Court Expands Review of 'Enemy Combatant' Rule to include Padilla, the Court has almost every element of the Bush-Ashcroft re-write of the Constitution before it (the only bit missing is the secret deportation trials of immigrants—the court let stand a decision allowing these earlier in the year).
An enormous amount rides on these decisions. Losses on any of them will diminish our liberty, or our national claim to be a law-based state. But some are more essential than others—and the Padilla case is the most essential of them all, as it involves a claimed government power to grab anyone off the street in the US, hold them for ever in solitary, without lawyers, family or judicial review. That has no place in a free country.
