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Donna Newman says the plight of her client

Jose Padilla is a classic example of how the

Bush administration has abused its power

under the cloak of national security. The sole

practitioner from Brooklyn says locking up

an American citizen for several years without

charge as an enemy combatant should scare

all Americans. She equates Padilla’s case

with the revelation that some American

phones had been wiretapped without court

approval.

“I think it’s just another example that the

executive branch believes that they can take

any of our rights and dilute them and then

claim it’s in the interest of national security,”

Newman told LawCrossing while slowly

driving across the Brooklyn Bridge during

the recent transport strike in New York. “I

get really enraged when people say, ‘I don’t

care if they listen, because I want to be safe.’

You can’t give up your liberties, because it

doesn’t make you more safe; it makes you

less safe.”

Newman, who left her practice as a speech

pathologist to start law school at age 35,

said the Bush administration’s actions often

remind her of a totalitarian regime.

“When you don’t have your checks and

balances, that’s exactly what Stalin did.

Do you think Stalin got on his propaganda

approach saying, ‘This is the reason we’re

hurting you’?” she said. “And when the

Third Reich started to arrest civilians, do

you think they came out and said, ‘We’re

arresting them because of their religion’?

No. They said, ‘It’s in the interest of national

security.’”

Padilla was arrested in May 2002 at

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport

after returning from Pakistan. At the time,

then-Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged

Padilla planned to set off a “dirty bomb.” FBI

agents who followed Padilla from Pakistan

arrested him on a material witness warrant

and transferred him to New York. Newman

was appointed by the court to defend Padilla.

Before Newman could challenge the warrant

in court, Padilla was named an “enemy

combatant” and handed over to the military.

Padilla was indicted in November 2005,

three-and-a-half years after his initial

arrest. Newman believes the timing of the

charges was politically motivated to avoid

Supreme Court scrutiny of the case. Padilla

was charged with membership in a North

American terrorist-support cell and with

conspiracy to murder and kidnap.

“He was indicted in Florida, but he has not

been transferred from South Carolina to

Florida as of yet, not to my knowledge,”

Newman said. “Because the Fourth Circuit

held up the transfer and asked the parties to

brief on whether or not their decision, which

we are appealing to the Supreme Court,

is moot, meaning it’s no longer a case of

controversy, since he was indicted on other

facts.”

While Newman is now allowed to visit her

client in the brig, she is not allowed to ask

him if he has been tortured or other sensitive

questions. Not asking certain questions

was part of the deal she made with the

government, she said.

On December 28, the Bush administration

asked the Supreme Court to allow Padilla to

be transferred from the military brig in South

Carolina to civilian custody to stand trial.

The request came in response to a ruling the

previous week by the U.S. Court of Appeals

for the Fourth Circuit, refusing to allow

Padilla to be moved to face charges in Miami.

The appeals court said that by charging

Padilla in criminal court after holding him

for three-and-a-half years as an enemy

combatant, the Bush administration gave

the appearance of trying to manipulate the

court system to prevent the Supreme Court

from hearing the case. The White House

said the court lacked the authority to defy a

presidential directive and noted that Padilla

himself had requested a transfer to civilian

custody.

Newman said she hoped the case would get

its day in Supreme Court. When asked if

she planned to argue Padilla’s case in the

Supreme Court if it came to that, Newman

paused. Newman is no longer handling the

Padilla case alone and has the help of many

other attorneys.

“That’s a long way off,” she said of a possible

Supreme Court argument. “I think it interests

every attorney. But every case is different,

and you have to weigh what you think is best

for your client, and sometimes it’s not your

arguing. You can never let your ego get in the

way of your client’s needs.”

Newman said her past careers as a speech

pathologist and English teacher and her

experience as a mother have helped her

continued on back

Donna Newman, Solo Practitioner, New York and New Jersey [by Regan Morris]

The story of alleged “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla has become a symbol of recent battles between the White House

and civil liberties advocates. LawCrossing speaks with Padilla’s attorney, Donna Newman, about her high-profile

client, her practice as a defense attorney, and her decision to start law school at age 35.

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be a better lawyer because she is a trained

listener. She graduated from New York

Law School cum laude in �986 and was the

recipient of the Federal Litigation Award. She

also holds a Master’s of Science in education

from Brooklyn College of the City University

of New York.

Newman intended to build a practice in

medical malpractice to capitalize on her

medical background. But during law school,

she realized criminal law would be more

interesting.

After clerking for several judges and working

at a small firm, Newman started her own

practice in �99� and maintains offices in New

York and New Jersey. She said starting her

own firm made sense because she needed a

flexible schedule while raising her children.

“There is a path that you step on each day,

and you may not know where it’s going to

lead you. And I say, ‘Let go. See where it

goes,’” she said. “Be open to it. Because

if you take life and you bite into it, you get

so much from keeping your eyes open and

[being] willing to try new things.”

The daughter of a Romanian immigrant,

Newman said her father taught her to

appreciate the freedom and rights she had as

an American.

“I’m very patriotic,” she said. “I want my

children and my grandchildren to have the

rights that I have. My father so appreciated

it. People who were born here sometimes

don’t understand how important freedom is.

And through my father, who was one of the

most brilliant people I have ever known, I

appreciate that freedom.”

Newman says there is no reason to give

up civil liberties in order to feel safe from

terror. And she rejects assertions that people

fighting for civil liberties are not patriotic.

“When Mr. Padilla was taken by an executive

order for what I knew to be and has come out

to be—simply to interrogate him, it reminded

me of the Spanish Inquisition,” she said.