When the feds nabbed Padilla, his lawyer got the 4th circuit to hear a habeas plea. The 4th is NOT the mirror image of the 9th. They're way, way more conservative than the 9th is liberal. This is the court that said it's ok to execute people even if you know they're innocent, as long as they've had due process.

The government argued that Padilla was a bad, bad dude. He hung out with AQ, and he was plotting to use a dirty bomb in the US. The 4th said, "yeah, he sounds bad, hold on to him for a while."

Padilla appealed, and was about to be heard by the USSC. To avoid having the Supremes review the case, the government decided they'd be better off just charging him with a crime. If the USSC ruled against them, they would have a harder time justifying kidnapping the next guy. They charged Padilla in the Miami circuit.

However, the 4th had ruled the government could hold him as an enemy combatant. Luttig, the chief of the 4th and a person on Bush's short list for the Supreme Court, said that this was a really important question. So important in fact that the 4th shouldn't be deciding it. He wants it to appeal all the way up.

Since the 4th had ruled on habeas, they still have control of Padilla in the US courts. The ruling yesterday said, no, you can't hand him over to Miami until we work out this whole issue of holding American citizens without recourse to the courts.

Oh, and they're really, really pissed that the government asked to hold Padilla without constitutional rights by arguing that he was Hitler reincarnated, but only charged him with jaywalking.

It's rare that I have anything good to say about the 4th circuit, so when they do get something right, I feel as if I should applaud them. I still think their initial ruling was wrong, but at least I can agree with them that the USSC needs to weigh in on this.

(Late note: today's newspaper coverage seems better. Looks like the reporters figured out what was going on and how to better explain it.)