A court room thousands of miles away in Miami on Tuesday hosts the sentencing hearings for convicted “terrorist plotter” Jose Padilla, but he and his mother, with the help of Yale legal scholar Jonathon Friedman have also started legal proceedings right here in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s Federal Court became part of an intriguing and intertwining legal legacy last Friday, when a suit was filed against a Berkeley Law Professor. Padilla ( one of the few “evil doers” ever convicted in the wake of the Bush Admin’s post-9/11 Homeland Security craze that swept the US), is angry at Boalt Hall’s John Yoo… and wants a symbolic dollar in damages ( although his lawyers want their full fees of course).

Padilla, a U.S Citizen who was born in Brooklyn and once claimed membership in Chicago’s “Maniac Latin Disciples” street gang was later termed an “illegal enemy combatant” after the government announced a “dirty bomb” plot in 2002. Thus began a long & winding legal odyssey in which precedents were few and far between, many challenges were filed, some initial charges were dropped, then reinstated, and evidence seldom matched allegations. All along, Padilla’s rotating cast of legal representatives claimed the case was an overblown example of overdue process, in which torture was employed on US soil “as part of a systematic program” that “intended to break down Mr. Padilla’s humanity and will to live”. Eventually, Padilla was convicted by the Feds last August.

But the story doesn’t stop there…

(more after the jump)

Yoo is being sued because while working for the The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel , he wrote the memoranda and legal opinions that supposedly formed the basis for Padilla’s detention. According to the plaintiff, Yoo’s actions directly violated Padilla’s constitutional and statutory rights, and they cite as evidence Yoo’s own book “War By Other Means” of personal responsibility for the series of recommendations and OLC opinions that Yoo made on the Government’s behalf.

Yoo, one of the chief architects of the Patriot act, isn’t your typical Berkely campus liberal. He earned his keep in D.C as a law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, and has vigorously argued against Congress restricting the President’s options in regards to torture. “

They can’t prevent the President from ordering torture

” adding that ‘

It’s the core of the Commander-in-Chief function”

The suit was filed here in San Francisco for jurisdictional reasons, as a similar complaint from Padilla filed in South Carolina was tossed out. Cynical legal observers suggest it is still a frivolous claim, even in nutty San Francisco, and without solid legal grounds, the Federal judiciary is likely to toss it out again.

Padilla’s sentencing hearing, which begins Tuesday, could last several days because of numerous disputes regarding the legalties of his lengthy detention.

The lawyering on the other hand, will continue for years I imagine…