Lebron v. Rumsfeld
| Decision Date | 23 January 2012 |
| Docket Number | No. 11–6480.,11–6480. |
| Citation | 670 F.3d 540 |
| Parties | Estela LEBRON, for herself and as Mother and Next Friend of Jose Padilla; Jose Padilla, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. Donald H. RUMSFELD, Former Secretary of Defense; Catherine T. Hanft, Former Commander Consolidated Brig; Melanie A. Marr, Former Commander Consolidated Brig; Lowell E. Jacoby, Vice Admiral, Former Director Defense Intelligence Agency; Paul Wolfowitz, Former Deputy Secretary of Defense; William Haynes, Former General Counsel Department of Defense; Leon E. Panetta, Secretary of Defense in his official and individual capacities, Defendants–Appellees,andJohn Ashcroft, Former Attorney General; Michael H. Mobbs, Special Advisor to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy; John Does, 1–48, in their individual capacities; Mack D. Keen, Senior Chief Consolidated Brig; Craig Noble, Dr.; Sandy Seymour, Technical Director Consolidated Brig; Stephanie L. Wright, Commander Consolidated Brig, Defendants.James P. Cullen, Brigadier General, USA (Ret.); Morris D. Davis, Colonel, USAF (Ret.); Eugene R. Fidell, Lieutenant Commander, USCG (Ret.); Evelyn P. Foote, Brigadier General, USA (Ret.); Don Guter, Rear Admiral, JAGC, USN (Ret.); Leif H. Hendrickson, Brigadier General, USMC (Ret.); John D. Hutson, Rear Admiral, JAGC, USN (Ret.); David R. Irvine, Brigadier General, USA (Ret.); Claudia J. Kennedy, Lieutenant General, USA (Ret.); Merrill A. McPeak, General, USAF (Ret.); Richard O'Meara, Brigadier General, USA (Ret.); Charles Otstott, Lieutenant General, USA (Ret.); Thomas J. Romig, Major General, USA (Ret.); Stephen N. Xenakis, Brigadier General, USA (Ret.); Erwin Chemerinsky, Founding Dean University of California–Irvine School of Law; Norman Dorsen, Frederick I. and Grace A. Stokes Professor of Law and Co–Director, Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program New York University School of Law; David Golove, Hiller Family Foundation Professor of Law New York University School of Law; Lee B. Kovarsky, Assistant Professor University of Maryland School of Law; Alan B. Morrison, Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service George Washington University Law School; Sheldon H. Nahmod, Distinguished Professor of Law and Co–Director of the Institute for Law and the Humanities Chicago–Kent College of Law; Alexander Reinert, Associate Professor of Law Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Kermit Roosevelt, III, Professor of Law University of Pennsylvania Law School; Michael E. Tigar, Professor of the Practice of Law, Emeritus Duke University School of Law; Carl W. Tobias, Williams Professor of Law University of Richmond School of Law; William Van Alstyne, Lee Professor of Law William & Mary Law School; Stephen I. Vladeck, Professor of Law American University Washington College of Law, Amici Supporting Appellants,William P. Barr; Edwin Meese, III; Michael B. Mukasey; Dick Thornburgh; United States of America, Amici Supporting Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
ARGUED: Benjamin Elihu Wizner, American Civil Liberties Union, New York, New York, for Appellants. David Boris Rivkin, Baker & Hostetler LLP, Washington, D.C.; Richard Douglas Klingler, Sidley Austin, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Alexander A. Abdo, American Civil Liberties Union, New York, New York; Jonathan Freiman, Hope R. Metcalf, Tahlia Townsend, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, National Litigation Project, Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut; Michael P. O'Connell, Stirling & O'Connell, PA, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellants. Lee A. Casey, Darin R. Bartram, Andrew M. Grossman, Baker & Hostetler LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee Donald H. Rumsfeld. Frank Gregory Bowman, Edward C. Reddington, Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee William J. Haynes II; Jacqueline G. Cooper, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee Catherine T. Hanft; William A. Coates, Roe Cassidy Coates & Price, P.A., Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellee Melanie A. Marr; Wan J. Kim, Kevin B. Huff, Andrew S. Oldham, Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, PLLC, Washington, D.C., Henry L. Parr, Jr., Wyche, P.A., Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellee Lowell E. Jacoby; Paul W. Butler, Kevin R. Amer, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, Washington, D.C., Ruth Wedgwood, Washington, D.C., for Appellee Paul Wolfowitz. Michael F. Hertz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Barbara L. Herwig, August E. Flentje, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Appellee Leon E. Panetta. Eric L. Lewis, James P. Davenport, Chiara Spector–Naranjo, Waleed Nassar, Baach Robinson & Lewis PLLC, Washington, D.C., for Retired Military Officers, Amici Supporting Appellants. Stephen I. Vladeck, Washington, D.C.; Armand Derfner, Derfner, Altman & Wilborn, Charleston, South Carolina, for Constitutional Law and Federal Courts Professors, Amici Supporting Appellants. Andrew G. McBride, William S. Consovoy, Claire J. Evans, Wiley Rein LLP, Washington, D.C., for Former Attorneys General William P. Barr, Edwin Meese, III, Michael B. Mukasey, Dick Thornburgh, Amici Supporting Appellees. Michael F. Hertz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Barbara L. Herwig, Robert M. Loeb, August E. Flentje, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for the United States, Amicus Supporting Appellees.
Before WILKINSON, MOTZ, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge MOTZ and Judge DUNCAN joined.
Plaintiffs Jose Padilla, presently incarcerated due to his conviction after trial for federal crimes of terrorism, and his mother, Estela Lebron, sue for legal and equitable relief based on Padilla's prior military detention as an “enemy combatant.” Padilla names as defendants the present Secretary of Defense and a number of former high-level civilian policy-makers in the Defense Department, as well as military officers who implemented their orders. He seeks a declaration that defendants' policies were unconstitutional, an order enjoining his future designation as an enemy combatant, and nominal damages of one dollar from each defendant. The district court dismissed the action. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
Plaintiff Jose Padilla is a United States citizen and a member of al Qaeda, who has been an active participant in that organization's terrorist mission since at least the late 1990s. He stands convicted of conspiring with others within the United States to support al Qaeda's global campaign of terror, having travelled to Afghanistan in late 2000 to receive combat training at al Qaeda's al Farooq jihadist camp.
After al Qaeda killed over three thousand people in its September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Congress empowered the President to use his warmaking authority to defeat this terrorist threat to our nation. See Authorization for Use of Military Force, Pub.L. No. 107–40, 115 Stat. 224 (2001) (“AUMF”). Two administrations have and continue to act pursuant to this authority. See Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, Address to the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law: The Obama Administration and International Law (Mar. 25, 2010) (“[W]e continue to fight a war of self-defense against an enemy that attacked us on September 11, 2001, and before, and that continues to undertake armed attacks against the United States.”)
While the U.S. military was engaged in combat against al Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan, Padilla orchestrated his return from Afghanistan to the United States via Pakistan, Egypt, and Switzerland, ultimately arriving at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002. There, Padilla was arrested by FBI agents after falsely denying that he had ever visited Afghanistan. Held pursuant to a material witness warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Padilla was transported to a federal detention center in New York and assigned court-appointed counsel.
On June 9, 2002, acting pursuant to his authority under the AUMF, President George W. Bush issued an order to defendant Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense, to detain Padilla as an enemy combatant, the President having determined that Padilla possessed vital intelligence and posed an ongoing threat to the national security of the United States. That day, Padilla was removed from civilian custody and transferred to the Naval Consolidated Brig at Charleston, South Carolina. While in military custody, Padilla claims that he was repeatedly abused, threatened with torture, deprived of basic necessities, and unjustifiably cut off from access to the outside world. Over time, these conditions were relaxed, and he was allowed monitored meetings with his attorneys.
On November 17, 2005, Padilla was indicted on criminal terrorism charges in the Southern District of Florida. The Supreme Court authorized his transfer from the Naval Consolidated Brig into civilian custody on January 4, 2006. See Hanft v. Padilla, 546 U.S. 1084, 126 S.Ct. 978, 163 L.Ed.2d 721 (2006). On August, 16, 2007, Padilla was convicted after trial of one count of conspiracy to murder, kidnap, or maim persons overseas in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 956(a)(1) and two counts of providing material support to al Qaeda in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339A. He is presently serving his sentence for those crimes.
Since his 2002 detention, Padilla has received the regular attention of the federal courts. Two days after Padilla's transfer to military custody, on June 11, 2002, Padilla's counsel filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Southern District of New York, challenging that detention. See Padilla v. Bush, 233 F.Supp.2d 564 (S.D.N.Y.2002) (“ Padilla I ”). The district court denied the petition, upholding the President's authority to detain Padilla, but a divided panel of the...
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