A former Chicago gang member and the son of an oil industry worker from Saudi Arabia are the subjects of the Supreme Court’s most far-reaching review to date of individual rights and liberties in a time of terrorism and war. The high court was hearing back-to-back cases Wednesday that question the government’s authority to seize and hold American citizens and deny them access to lawyers and courts. Yaser Esam Hamdi was born in Louisiana while his Saudi father worked there, but grew up in the Middle East. Jose Padilla is a convert to Islam who was born in Chicago and spent time in jail. Both are U.S. citizens. The Bush administration says they also are “enemy combatants,” dangerous enough to warrant open-ended military detention, perhaps for the duration of the open-ended war on terror. Full Story
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