The NDAA is dead!

At last a Federal Judge who actually applies the U.S. Constitution as written has blocked the U.S. Government’s ability to detain people without charges.

The National Defense Authorization Act’s “Homeland Battlefield” provisions allowed for the indefinite detention of people for terror-related reasons, but indefinite detention without charges or a trial clearly runs contrary to the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.

Sadly, the measure passed both houses of Congress and was signed by President Barack Obama.  We would encourage our members to vote to remove from office any elected official who voted for this grossly unconstitutional measure.

Foes of the measure, including us at Guns Save Life, were concerned not only about the measure’s extra-constitutionality, but that it would be used liberally by those in power to detain those with unpopular viewpoints or political enemies.

Karl Denninger did a fine job writing this up this morning and we would urge you to read his piece on it:

This injunction effectively de-fangs the concept of the US Government playing “we’ll detain but never charge, try or convict you” games with US citizens.  With this section barred from use the government must now adhere to Due Process of Law, one of the founding principles of our nation.

…The simple fact of the matter is that Habeas Corpus was in fact one of the issues that led to the American Revolution.  Back in the 1770s colonists were often held without charges and without any opportunity to confront accusers, either in person or in the form of the alleged evidence against them.  This barbarism was in no small part the reason that our forefathers took arms and ejected the British from what is now America, and wrote into the Constitution its protection…

Here’s the story from Reuters:

U.S. judge’s rule protects reporters, activists in their Middle East work

(Reuters) – A federal judge made permanent on Wednesday her order blocking enforcement of a U.S. law’s provision that authorizes military detention for people deemed to have “substantially supported” al Qaeda, the Taliban or “associated forces.”

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan had ruled in May in favor of non-profit groups and reporters whose work relates to conflicts in the Middle East and who said they feared being detained under a section of the law, signed by President Barack Obama in December.

Wednesday’s 112-page opinion turns the temporary injunction of May into a permanent injunction. The United States appealed on August 6.

The permanent injunction prevents the U.S. government from enforcing a portion of Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act’s “Homeland Battlefield” provisions.