Talkleft reports on Feds Move to Block Jose Padilla Subpoenas. At issue are the Navy’s records of what they did to Padilla for the three years they had unfettered power over him.
Whatever the outcome of this motion, it is essential that this information be made public in some way — Congressional hearings? — so that the public can be reminded why the Bill of Rights is so crucial to our freedom. Because I suspect that the Navy did not even come close to complying with it.
In it’s motion the government said that Rumsfeld can’t be held liable through a civil suit. Funny, because in Padilla, the administration is arguing against the motion to dismiss because this is not how to get redres “relief may be availbale through the civil process or prosecution of his alleged oppressors”
Longer quote: “The foregoing authorities squarely foreclose Padillas claim that the due process violations alleged in his motion have divested the government of jurisdiction to prosecute him in the instant matter. A defendants recourse for such mistreatment is not amnesty from prosecution a remedy Padilla himself acknowledges would be calamit[ous], see Mot. at 8, given the gravity of the charges against him and the publics interest in seeing them resolved but rather whatever relief may be available through the civil process or prosecution of his alleged oppressors.”
True, the plaintiffs in this case are non-citizens, but still I feel a tension here.