A federal appeals court panel on Friday sided with the Bush administration and concluded the president has the authority to detain a U.S. citizen because of his alleged terrorist ties.
The 3-0 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned the previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd of Spartanburg, S.C., who held last March that the federal government cannot hold Jose Padilla indefinitely as an "enemy combatant," a designation President Bush gave him in 2002.
Judge Floyd said the government had to charge him with something or release him.
We hold no great sympathy for Padilla, but we do believe that he - like any American citizen - deserves his day in court. The appeals court got that wrong when they decided he didn't. <snip>
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2005/09/12/opinion/iq_3678432.txt