Three years and counting after officials took Jose Padilla off an airplane in Chicago and dumped him in a military brig, he has finally been indicted on criminal charges. It's about time. But Padilla's overdue indictment doesn't eliminate the need for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the critical question: How long is too long for a citizen to be locked up by the government without charges or a day in court?...No citizen taken into custody in the United States should be deprived of those rights as Padilla has been. So the Supreme Court should accept the appeal filed on his behalf last month and answer the question it posed: "Does the president have the power to seize American citizens in civilian settings on American soil and subject them to indefinite military detention without criminal charges or trial?"
Newsday is right. The Supremes really do need to take a look at this one. And if they don't want to, well, then I guess we'll just have to get Al Gore to make 'em do it!
Via The Christian Science Monitor, whose first-rate Padilla news roundup can be found here.