Enemy combatant case back in SC court

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys return to federal court in South Carolina to ask that the designation of a man as an enemy combatant and his subsequent treatment at a Navy brig be declared unconstitutional.

The government wants the suit dismissed and attorneys for both sides appear before a judge Monday.

Attorneys for Jose Padilla, who was arrested in 2002, claim he was unlawfully held as an enemy combatant. His attorneys say during 44 months at the brig, he was at times kept in total darkness and isolation, deprived of sleep and kept from family and attorneys.

Padilla was once suspected of plotting to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb” and is now imprisoned on a 2007 terrorism material support conviction.