US court will not hear Padilla appeal
By Associated Press
Jun 11, 2012 10:23 AM CDT

The U.S. Supreme Court will not reinstate a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other government officials for the imprisonment of a man declared an "enemy combatant."

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Jose Padilla and his mother, Estela Lebron.

Padilla wanted to sue former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former prison commander Catherine T. Hanft and several other officials. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that Congress, not the court system, has jurisdiction over military detention cases.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was eventually convicted of supporting terrorism in Kosovo, Bosnia and Chechnya and is serving a 17-year sentence in a federal prison in Colorado.