With the stroke of a pen, President George Bush transformed alleged terrorist Jose Padilla from an enemy combatant with few legal rights to a criminal defendant protected by the Bill of Rights.
The flip-flop that suddenly granted Padilla a host of rights that he had been denied for more than three years comes after the Bush administration fought bitterly to detain Padilla -- a U.S. citizen -- and deny him access to federal courts, his attorneys and the media.
On Tuesday, Padilla became a defendant in a federal criminal case in Miami, accused of conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping and other acts of terrorism abroad.
Legal critics contend the change is an indication the Bush administration knew it abused its discretion and retreated in an effort to preserve its ability to designate future enemy combatants, as Padilla's case was poised for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Today's move is an attempt to take this action away from the Supreme Court so that they can continue to exercise these powers, maybe not against Padilla but against other Americans in the next few years," said Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice.
Details here from the Daily Business Review via Law.com.