The Justice Department has filed criminal charges against Jose Padilla. The story is here, and the indictment is here. The timing presumably is no coincidence; the government’s response to Padilla’s petition for certiorari is due in six days, and the filing of the indictment gives DOJ what I would think is a strong argument that the issues raised are moot and the petition should be denied. Of course, you never know what will happen; the Bush Administration restructured the Guantanamo military tribunals in September in what appeared to be a partial response to the pending Hamdan petition, and the Court granted the petition anyway. For more on the impact of today’s indictment, see Lyle Denniston’s take over at SCOTUSblog.
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