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Bill Proposed To Prohibit The Indefinite Detention Of US Citizens
In my last article called Setting The Record Straight: The Changed Language In The NDAA I said that the NDAA didn’t allow Americans to be detained in sec. 1031 and 1032 but it says:
“Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.”
The question I asked was, what does EXISTING law say about the detention of American citizens. That is what we need to be concerned with. If existing law states American citizens can be detained indefinitely, by the military, that is the law or laws that need to be changed, rather than this current appropriations act.
Senator Dianne Feinstein just released this bill called ‘‘Due Process Guarantee Act of 2011’’. This bill may rectify what I was concerned about; existing laws that allow the detaining of American citizens.
Her website states, The Due Process Guarantee Act of 2011 amends the Non-Detention Act of 1971 by providing that a Congressional authorization for the use of military force does not authorize the indefinite detention—without charge or trial—of U.S. citizens who are apprehended domestically.
The Feinstein bill also codifies a “clear-statement rule” that requires Congress to expressly authorize detention authority when it comes to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
The protections for citizens and lawful permanent residents is limited to those “apprehended in the United States” and excludes citizens who take up arms against the United States on a foreign battlefield, such as Afghanistan.
This perhaps can bring a sigh of relief to progressives like myself, who were extremely concerned about the ramifications of the NDAA and existing laws.
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11 Responses to Bill Proposed To Prohibit The Indefinite Detention Of US Citizens
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Reynardine
Dec. 15th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Doesn’t reassure me much. I go to visit my relatives in Bulgaria, say, and somebody doesn’t like a brief I filed two decades back or a dissertation I submitted a quarter century back, and the next thing you know, I’m whisked out of the baggage check in Sofia Airport and off to an East European black site. I have never conspired with the enemy or taken up arms against my country, but I’m subjected to the same treatment as if I had, because that law doesn’t protect me. Don’t count on that law protecting you if you do so much as stagger a drunken step across the Canadian border.
Ray Medeiros
Dec. 15th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
This is why having a “broad” based war on terror is so dangerous. We are not fighting people of a country, but an ideology and a warped sense of a religion.
If we declared a war against a country, this would be OVER by now
nathan jackson
Dec. 15th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
I am against indefinitely jailing anyone with no trial, no recourse at all times. It goes against the fundamental beliefs of America. I don’t care if it is a citizen or not. We are better than this. Guatanamo was a shame, this bill is a Travesty!
tidux
Dec. 15th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
Whoopdee fucking doo. Let me know when this bill gets signed into law. Until then it’s worthless.
tidux
Dec. 16th, 2011 at 12:15 am
Self-reply: I wrote my senators to urge them to vote yes on this bill. Do the same thing for your senators, people!
tidux
Dec. 17th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Yo dawg, I heard you like self-replies. Turns out one of my senators is a co-sponsor! Go Jeanne Shaheen!
Martina Dinale
Dec. 15th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
I could live somewhere else , a whole bunch of somewhere elses in fact because in addition to American citizenship I have Italian + therefore EU citizenship . I have chosen to live here . I love this fucked up old country . For chrissake . But this ? THIS ? A-historical assholes compare this and then that to Nazi Germany every day , usually for no good reason . But this ? I can hardly be the only history buff out there ( with parents that went THROUGH World War Two complete with up close and personal contact with real Nazis and the German Army and everything ) who has caught a whiff of a perfume I like to call ” Folks who should have left Germany but understandably , fatally didn’t because this was their home , their COUNTRY , how bad could it get , really , and why would they arrest me , or US …. don’t push , you in the back…is that a CATTLE CAR? “. No , that’s not nuts . No , it’s not unreasonable to think this . Horrifying? Yes . Unreasonable ? No. I don’t want to be so invested in not looking like a nut that I can disappear too , because I didn’t react, because I didn’t flee when I had a chance . I truly never dreamed I would have to be thinking this way about MY COUNTRY. But then again , neither did anyone in that cattle car rolling toward the camps , did they ? Noone thought it could happen there , did they ? AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM .
Peter Voth
Dec. 16th, 2011 at 4:46 am
Do Americans believe that human rights apply only to Americans?
BrianC
Dec. 16th, 2011 at 7:03 am
No, our “leaders” do, though. Most common people either don’t care at all (maybe because the football game is on TV) or don’t know what “human rights” are. There are SOME of us who pay attention and we DO care (probably less than 10% of the population where I live).
Ken
Dec. 18th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
The NDAA act of 2001 gave the authority to detain anyone, including US citizens, here and abroad. It has not been changed. This act of 2012 codifies that authority, so Feinstein’s bill should be passed (with amendments to clarify intent).