July 16, 2008 11:14AM # Al-Marri Ruling By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE Yesterday, a federal appellate court finally issued its ruling in the [Al-Marri case](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/washington/16combatant.html?ref=todayspaper). This ruling highlights the most important constitutional issues that have arisen since 9–11, namely, the power of the executive vis-a-vis Americans here at home. True, Al-Marri is a citizen of Qatar, but Bush’s lawyers have been clear that what they’ve done to Al-Marri (incommunicado imprisonment in a military brig) can be done to any American suspected of terrorism. As a practical matter, it means Americans can be arrested without warrants and jailed without trials. The *Padilla* case was never really resolved by the courts, the momentous legal issues involved were left hanging out there once he was transferred into a civilian court to face criminal charges. To clear up the uncertainty, let’s hope the Supreme Court will hear this matter next term. I’m still studying the 200+ pages in the ruling, but that’s my quick take. For additional info, go [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5136) and [here](https://www.cato.org/pubs/scr/docs/2004/powerandliberty.pdf) (pdf). ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).