Backlash against NDAA

States Are Refusing To Lock Up Americans Without Due Process

Robert Johnson

Business Insider,

9 February, 2012

For 49 years the National Defense Authorization Act was a simple law signed off on by the President to give the Department of Defense the money it needed to get through another 12 months of spending.

This year, the Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) and senior member John McCain (R.-Ariz.) crafted provisions for the bill that many said would erode the 5th Amendment.

Now Bob Unruh at WND reports state and local officials are refusing to cooperate with federal plans to detain Americans — something the NDAA expressly enforces.

• Section 1021 of the NDAA allows the U.S. military to indefinitely detain, without due process, any person engaged in "hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners ... without trial until the end of hostilities."

• Section 1022 expressly states that the military will imprison anyone who is a member of al-Qaeda or "an associated force" that acts like al-Qaeda; and anyone who planned or carried out an attack, or attempted attack, against the U.S. 

• Section 1022 continues that detaining American citizens is not required. "UNITED STATES CITIZENS — The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States."

The bottom line is the government can imprison anyone suspected of, or even associated with, terrorism and it looks like some states are refusing to accept that. 

From WND:

“Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center say as many as 10 states will consider legislation or resolutions in response to the detention provisions in section 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA,” the organization is reporting. “Lawmakers in Rhode Island and Washington will likely introduce resolutions authored by the Rhode Island Liberty Coalition within the next week. Additionally, local governments, including Fremont County, Colo. and El Paso County, Colo., have passed resolution condemning the detention provisions.”

Tenth Amendment Center executive director Michael Boldin commented that “federal politicians never seem to repeal federal law.”

“It’s going to take ‘We the People’ in our states to stand up and say, ‘No!’ to this unconstitutional monster,” he said.