Padilla’s Detention Violates Constitution

Re “Justices to Weigh Presidential Powers,” Jan. 12: Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has been held indefinitely for over one year without access to an attorney or his family. He has not been charged with any crime. How many violations of the Constitution does that constitute? The 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination has been violated if he has been requesting counsel and the authorities continue to question him. The 6th Amendment rights to counsel and a speedy trial have also been trampled on.

We have no idea how this person is being treated, which raises a potential violation of the 8th Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment. It also raises issues of violations of the Geneva Convention, if he truly is an enemy combatant.

On Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush said, “Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward.” At that time and on that day, he was right. But ever since, instead of acting to preserve our freedoms, Bush seems intent on destroying them. If one of our citizens, like Padilla, can be held under those circumstances and in direct violation of the Constitution, who is to say that we, his fellow citizens, are any less vulnerable to these police-state tactics?

Jeffrey L. Hoffer

Westlake Village