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Court: U.S. Cannot Hold Padilla as a Combatant
By Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal appeals court ruled today that the Bush administration overstepped its authority by detaining Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen seized in Chicago nine months after the bombing of the World Trade Center and locked up incommunicado as an "enemy combatant" for allegedly plotting to explode a "dirty bomb" in the United States.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, said the administration has no inherent constitutional power to sidestep the normal procedures required to imprison a U.S. citizen seized on American soil. ...