He was later classified as an "enemy combatant," which, the George W. Bush administration claimed as justification to imprison him indefinitely, and without legal recourse or access, as with non-citizen suspects in the war on terror.

In other words, it overruled the Court of Appeals decision and ordered the dismissal of the case, allowing Padilla to refile the petition.

The case was argued only two days before the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal was first shown to the general public in a The New Yorker article by Seymour M. Hersh (April 30), which showed digital photos taken by guards.

During the oral argument, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked some pointed questions of Clement, some of which directly treated the issue of abuse.

An important dialogue features a comment by Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement which denies the claim that the United States uses torture: