WASHINGTON

ADMINISTRATION MUST CHARGE OR RELEASE TERROR SUSPECT

A federal judge ordered the Bush administration yesterday to either charge terrorism suspect Jose Padilla with a crime or release him after more than 2 1/2 years in custody.

U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd in Spartanburg, S.C., said the government cannot hold Mr. Padilla indefinitely as an “enemy combatant,” a designation President Bush gave him in 2002.

“The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold petitioner as an enemy combatant,” Mr. Floyd wrote in a 23-page opinion that was a stern rebuke to the government. He gave the administration 45 days to take action.

The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the ruling.

The administration has said Mr. Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in America in addition to planning an attack with a “dirty bomb” radiological device. Mr. Padilla was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2002 after returning from Pakistan.

– Associated Press

SENATE RENEWS FIGHT OVER BUSH’S JUDICIAL NOMINEES

A former Interior Department lawyer opposed by environmentalists and American Indian tribes is the first of President Bush’s judicial nominees to face a confirmation fight this year.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who handled nomination matters in his previous job as White House counsel, said yesterday he wanted to end the impasse before a president’s choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy gets caught up in it.

Democrats blocked William Myers III in 2004 from a seat on the San Francisco based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, which approved Mr. Myers’s nomination on a party-line vote last year, planned a confirmation hearing today. Republicans are pledging to get Myers’ nomination through the full Senate this time. Democrats have promised to try to stall Mr. Bush’s nominees again if they believe the president’s picks are too conservative.

– Associated Press

CRUISE INDUSTRY URGES COURT NOT TO APPLY DISABILITIES ACT

The cruise ship industry tried yesterday to fend off efforts to make its vessels more accessible to disabled vacationers, telling the Supreme Court that imposing requirements would hurt the billion-dollar tourist business.

The real question is discrimination, countered a lawyer for three disabled American passengers, two of them in wheelchairs, who sued the Norwegian Cruise Line. They want the Americans With Disabilities Act extended to foreign vessels that call on American ports.

The case has huge implications for cruise lines, which could be forced to pay for retrofitting ships. The worldwide industry estimates two-thirds of its passengers are Americans. The justices seemed concerned about stepping into an intersection of the law of the sea, American rules, and the laws of foreign countries.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

FEDERAL JUDGE FINDS TWO BODIES AT HER HOME

CHICAGO – A federal judge discovered two bodies in her Chicago home last night, and authorities were investigating the deaths.

U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow found the bodies about 6 p.m., when she returned home from work, police spokesman Pat Camden said. The judge was uninjured. The Web site for the Chicago Tribune reported late last night that police said the bodies were those of Ms. Lefkow’s husband and mother. Ms. Lefkow returned to her house in the 5200 block of North Lakewood Avenue and found the bodies of her husband, attorney Michael Lefkow and her mother, Donna Humphrey, lying in blood in the house, police told the Tribune.

Judge Lefkow was the target of a murder plot by white supremacist Matthew Hale in January of 2003, after the judge held Hale in contempt of court in a previous case. Hale was convicted in April of last year of soliciting the judge’s murder. Hale is currently in jail awaiting sentencing in April.

– Associated Press