All Padilla, All The Time
Over at SCOTUSBlog, Lyle Denniston thoroughly recaps the fascinating Reply Brief filed today by Jose Padilla’s lawyers in the Supreme Court. Lyle thoroughly recounts the significant amount of ground that the brief covers, along with the formal introduction of Snoopgate to the Justices. [It really is a worthwhile read.] As Lyle writes:
Ordinarily, a reply brief in a pending Supreme Court case is little more than a move to claim the final say on the issues at stake, perhaps cleaning up some loose ends of argument. But so much has happened in the 11 days since the government urged the Court to deny review of Padilla’s case that the atmospherics — and perhaps the very substance — of the case may have changed markedly.
Specifically, the two most prominent intervening events are the various Snoopgate revelations and the Fourth Circuit’s order last Wednesday denying the government’s motion to transfer Padilla and its suggestion that the case is moot.
At the same time comes news from tomorrow’s New York Times that defense lawyers in various pending criminal cases — including United States v. Hassoun, the Miami indictment to which Padilla was added in November — are trying to ascertain whether any evidence used in these various cases was obtained as a result of the domestic NSA surveillance. Perhaps the link between Padilla and Snoopgate isn’t as attenuated as it might otherwise seem?
It’s surely a while yet before any Snoopgate issue might directly come before the Court, but I agree wholeheartedly with what I take to be Lyle’s point — that as the Justices discuss whether to grant cert. in Padilla come mid-January, the NSA allegations may reverberate fairly loudly… At the very least, since the government’s op. cert. was filed on December 16, it does seem that the likelihood of the Court granting cert. has only increased, perhaps markedly so.
Posted by Steve Vladeck on December 27, 2005 at 11:23 PM
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