Supreme Court Backs Paranoia Shown in "Punishment Park"

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Bush Administration's caputre and indefinite imprisionment of Jose Padilla Monday. The right for the President to label Padilla an "enemy combatant" and treat him the same as "detainees" in camps such as Guantanamo Bay was upheld in the face of Padilla's U.S. citizenship status. Wednesday, the Cleveland Museum of Art showed the movie Punishment Park on the Case campus, a film set in 1970s America after Nixon has used the McCarran Act to declare a state of emergency, round up leftists of the day, and try them in bogus tribunals. In the end defendants are allowed to choose between prison and being chased down by police and National Guardsmen in pursuit of an American flag some 50 miles away in the California desert. The film is a controversial one with a lot of possible interpretations. Send any our way.