[JURIST] Less than two weeks after arguing in a brief that the US Supreme Court should stay out of the Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] "enemy combatant" case because criminal charges against Padilla [JURIST report] in late November rendered his appeal moot, the US Department of Justice Wednesday asked the Court to intervene in matter of his custody, claiming that the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] usurped the President's authority to direct the war on terror when it denied the Bush Administration's request [JURIST report; decision, PDF] to transfer Padilla from military to civilian detention for purposes of his prosecution. US Solicitor General Paul Clement's application [PDF] to the Supreme Court called the Fourth Circuit decision "an unwarranted attack on the exercise of Executive discretion." The filing also denied the Court of Appeal's suggestion that the Bush administration attempted to circumvent the Supreme Court by charging Padilla, writing, "There is nothing remotely sinister about the government's effort to pursue criminal charges that minimize evidentiary complications...there is no basis for questioning the good faith of the government in moving forward with the indictment." The Washington Post has more.