High Court to Mull 'Enemy Combatant' Rule

[Andy_Stephenson]

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether U.S. citizens arrested in America as "enemy combatants" may be held indefinitely without access to lawyers or courts, setting the stage for a major ruling on presidential powers versus civil liberties.

The justices had already agreed to consider the government's detentions of terror suspects — American and foreign — caught overseas and held incommunicado.


But the case of former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla is seen as the one that will set a key standard as the government pursues the open-ended war on terror: Does the threat of attack justify giving federal authorities unprecedented legal latitude to hold their own citizens?

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