Padilla transfer opposed

Lawyers for Jose Padilla told the Supreme Court on Friday that it should not grant the government's emergency request to have him transferred from a military brig to civilian custody to face terrorism charges in a civil court.

The lawyers acknowledged that Padilla would prefer to be in civilian custody eventually. But they said it appeared that the only reason for the government's rush to move him was to bolster the administration's efforts to discourage the Supreme Court from reviewing the crucial underlying issue of whether President Bush had the authority to detain Padilla, an American citizen, as an enemy combatant for more than three years.

"The government had the power to transfer Padilla from physical military custody for more than three years, yet only now does it deem swift transfer imperative," Padilla's lawyers argued in their brief filed Friday.

They noted that the justices are scheduled to consider whether to review Padilla's case at their private conference Jan. 13. After that, the lawyers said, it would be acceptable to move Padilla.

When Padilla (pronounced puh-DILL-ah) was first arrested in Chicago at O'Hare Airport in May 2002, the authorities said he was considering a plot to explode a radioactive "dirty bomb" in some American city. But in the criminal indictment issued in November, the government made no mention of the dirty bomb plot and instead charged him with fighting against American forces alongside members of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The issue of Padilla's transfer is the latest development in what has become a complicated and extraordinary legal battle, not only between the government and Padilla, but also between the Justice Department and a federal appeals court that has usually been a reliable supporter of Bush's authority in the fight against terrorism.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals provided Bush with a sweeping victory in September, saying he had the power to detain Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who allied himself with radical Islamists, as an enemy combatant.

But the Bush administration said in November that it no longer needed that authority because it had decided to charge Padilla in a civilian court. The appeals panel refused to agree to transfer Padilla from military custody to civilian.

Judge J. Michael Luttig wrote in the opinion declining the transfer that the administration appeared to be trying to manipulate the case to avoid a Supreme Court review of the September ruling. Luttig also warned that the administration's behavior in the case could jeopardize its credibility before the courts in other terrorism cases.

The Justice Department, in a strongly worded application to the Supreme Court this week, said the appeals court panel had overstepped its bounds in denying Bush's request to transfer Padilla and asked the justices to order an immediate transfer. The department asserted that Padilla was agreeable to the transfer. On Friday, his lawyers made it clear that they felt the government mischaracterized their views regarding the transfer.