WASHINGTON. - Jose Padilla lost a Supreme Court bid to sue former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for being tortured while he was held in military custody for terrorism-related allegations.
Padilla was arrested in 2002 and kept in military confinement without any charges before he was charged and convicted for conspiring with and aiding Islamist fundamentalist groups, including al-Qaeda in 2007. Padilla was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Padilla sought out to sue Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary and other top officials for approving torture perpetrated on him during his time in confinement in a naval base in South Caroline. In January, a federal appeals court in Virginia rejected Padilla's appeal to sue.
"The case would draw courts into the heart of executive and military planning and deliberation," announced the appeals court, according to Bloomberg.
Padilla and his lawyer, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union, took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, who denied it review today. Wizner told Bloomberg, that this "leaves in place a blank check for government officials to commit any abuse in the name of national security, even brutal torture of an American citizen in an American prison."
The denial of review comes a few days after the Supreme Court's refusal to hear any of the Guantanamo Bay cases. As a consequence of denying review in the latter, the court is upholding the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA). The refusal to hear both cases might be indicative of a collective consciousness residing among Justices to keep away from national security issues and military affairs.
