Two positive steps have just been taken toward limiting the scope of the detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the recently-passed federal statute on the military detention and trial of terrorist suspects.
The first is that, yesterday evening, the Obama Administration issued a policy directive that effectively negates much of the NDAA’s section 1022, the section that purports to require that non-citizens suspected of strong links to terrorism be held in military, rather than civilian, custody. Using a national security rationale, the directive reverses the presumption of military detention that section 1022 had established.
The second step toward limiting the NDAA is less immediately effective, but might be more important in the long run. At 10 a.m. this morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Due Process Guarantee Act, a bill introduced late last year in the wake of the NDAA’s passage.
Drafted in response to concerns that section 1021 of the NDAA authorizes the indefinite military detention of US citizens picked up on US soil, the Due Process Guarantee Act would protect both citizens and lawful permanent residents arrested in the US against being detained indefinitely under a military rationale. It would set a baseline prohibition on indefinite military detention in these cases, allowing it to be used only when Congress explicitly provides for it.
Introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the act now has 23 co-sponsors, including four Republicans. Its passage, or the passage of any bill like it (there are several such bills currently pending in the House and Senate), would be a powerful endorsement of the fairness and effectiveness of the civilian justice system.
Reversing the NDAA’s Presumption of Military Custody
The presidential directive issued today is explicitly required by the NDAA, which states that the president must issue procedures for section 1022’s implementation within 60 days of the NDAA’s enactment. But while the new directive adheres strictly to the NDAA’s timeline, it otherwise ignores much of the NDAA’s purpose and intent.
The goal of the NDAA’s detention provisions, stated clearly by many of the law’s congressional supporters, was to limit executive discretion, dramatically restrict reliance on civilian justice options, and ensure that terrorism cases are handled by the military. Yet as the law’s provisions were negotiated over the course of 2011, their mandatory nature was weakened. What was left, when the law finally passed in mid-December, was a presumption of military custody for certain non-citizen terrorism suspects.
The new directive takes what the law framed as an exception to this presumption and makes it the rule, effectively turning the presumption on its head. Taking advantage of section 1022’s national security waiver provision, the new directive sets out a number of broad and flexible categories of suspects who are supposed to remain in the civilian justice system.
According to the directive, non-citizen suspects who fall within any of seven categories will not be subject to military custody, as the president has prospectively certified that keeping them in civilian custody serves US national security interests. Among the protected categories are:
1. Foreign nationals or residents whose placement in military custody “will impede counterterrorism cooperation,” including the sharing of intelligence.
This category alone could arguably cover a wide swathe of cases, given that foreign governments are generally not pleased to see their nationals placed in indefinite US military detention, and that the sharing of intelligence often takes the form of trading favors.
2. Lawful permanent residents arrested within the US or arrested by a federal agency on the basis of conduct occurring in the US.
While this exemption grants lawful permanent residents a degree of protection, it is worth noting that US residents picked up abroad by the US military based on conduct that took place on US soil, or those picked up abroad by the US military based on conduct occurring abroad, would not be protected by it.
This is still much preferable to the rule set out in the NDAA, which makes an empty gesture in the direction of protecting lawful permanent residents from mandatory military detention, allowing such detention only “to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.” Indeed, the wording of the NDAA makes one wonder if, by implication, non-lawful residents can be held by the military even when the Constitution does not permit it.
3. Non-citizens whose transfer to military custody “could interfere” with efforts to secure that person’s cooperation or obtain his or her confession. (This is another extremely broad category, particularly given the open-ended reference to possible—as opposed to likely or definite—interference.)
Moreover, for any suspects arrested by the FBI or other federal agency who are deemed to fall outside of the seven categories, the directive establishes an interagency review process that defaults back to the civilian justice system. Only if a range of government actors concur—including the Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Homeland Security—will a suspect be transferred from civilian to military custody. And even if the interagency process recommends the transfer, the head of the FBI can still veto it if he or she determines that the transfer will disrupt ongoing intelligence collection or compromise national security investigations.
Although such transfers are still conceivable given some toxic confluence of politics and events, the review process set out in the directive effectively reverses the presumption of military custody contained in the new law.
Limiting the NDAA via Congressional Action
One problem with a presidential directive is, of course, that it can be rescinded by a future president. And while the new directive represents a laudable effort to narrow some of the NDAA’s most objectionable provisions, it leaves section 1021 of the law untouched.
A much better, if more long-term, approach to remedying the law’s problems would be to repeal or amend it. The hearings held this morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee are a step in that direction.
Close observers of the NDAA will recall that its detention provisions were passed without any hearings, and that even though its provisions negatively impacted the civilian justice system, the bill was never brought before the House or Senate Judiciary Committees for a vote. Today’s hearing, while too late to prevent the NDAA’s passage, should serve to formally initiate the broad congressional discussion that the law’s provisions merit.
What is needed is statutory reform: a clear legal rule that terrorism cases belong in the civilian courts. Because, in the end, flexibility and executive discretion—the focus of the new directive—mean that the government is as free to take the wrong approach as the right one.
As the fact sheet accompanying the directive emphasizes, the new rules open up the executive’s detention options, but they do not limit those options. A determination that section 1022 does not apply or should be waived “does not affect the executive branch’s discretion to use any lawful disposition option…[It just means] that there is no statutory requirement to place an individual in military custody.”
[…] an attempt to make it seem like it was planned all along to make Obama look good. /sarcasm http://verdict.justia.com/2012/02/29…ay-at-the-ndaa Chipping Away at the NDAA Two positive steps have just been taken toward limiting the scope […]
Hey Joanne! Great article. Looks like Prez Obama’s trying 2 mitigate this mistake. We can hope 4 future progress back towards actual civil rights … Be well.
[…] But – while presidents do not have a line item veto, when signing bills – the 2012 NDAA did contain clever “get-out-of jail” language (inserted by sympathetic Democrats?) that allows him to effectively veto the bill after the fact. Verdict […]
[…] effectively end military detentions for non-citizen terrorism suspects: “Yesterday evening, the Obama Administration issued a policy directive that effectively negates much of the NDAA’s sec…, the section that purports to require that non-citizens suspected of strong links to terrorism be […]
A little chip to protect non-citizens but Liberty for US citizens is still getting hammered.
I suppose this directive could apply to former US citizens that may lose their citizenship if they pass the UNCONSTITUTIONAL ‘Enemy Expatriation Act’ (where citizenship can be stripped with no trial or criminal conviction). But hey, at least ‘required’ detention isn’t automatic under Obama but that’s little consolation since a US citizen would lose all Constitutional protections if they lose citizenship. When will Americans WAKE UP?! The Enemy Expatriation Act is more than a chip in our Rights, it’s the end of them all. details- http://saynotocorporateamerica.blogspot.com/2012/02/citizens-vs-civilians-americans-without.html
Congress and Obama smashed the First Amendment with the
passage of the Anti-Protest Law (Federal Restricted Buildings and
Grounds Improvement Act of 2011). NOT ONE DEMOCRAT VOTED AGAINST THIS
BILL! The Senate passed it with Unanimous Consent and only three House
members had the good sense to vote against it, Ron Paul [of course],
Justin Amash and Paul Broun.
A misinforming blogger linked this article saying Obama vetoed indefinite detention NDAA 2012. They said indefinite detention doesn’t apply to US citizens because they were “already excluded by section 1022”, OMG, the only difference 1022 made is “REQUIRED” detention of non-citizens… doesn’t mean they can’t detain citizens. Unfortunately, until they pass something like the Due Process Guarantee Act, or better yet, remove it from the law with the Ron Paul AMENDMENT H.R.3785 indefinite detention does apply to US citizens.
http://saynotocorporateamerica.blogspot.com/2011/12/your-allotted-amount-of-freedom-has.html
Thanks for this
A little chip to protect non-citizens but Liberty for US citizens is still getting hammered.
I suppose this directive could apply to former US citizens that may lose their citizenship if they pass the UNCONSTITUTIONAL ‘Enemy Expatriation Act’ (where citizenship can be stripped with no trial or criminal conviction). But hey, at least ‘required’ detention isn’t automatic under Obama but that’s little consolation since a US citizen would lose all Constitutional protections if they lose citizenship. When will Americans WAKE UP?! The Enemy Expatriation Act is more than a chip in our Rights, it’s the end of them all. details- http://saynotocorporateamerica.blogspot.com/2012/02/citizens-vs-civilians-americans-without.html
Congress and Obama smashed the First Amendment with the
passage of the Anti-Protest Law (Federal Restricted Buildings and
Grounds Improvement Act of 2011). NOT ONE DEMOCRAT VOTED AGAINST THIS
BILL! The Senate passed it with Unanimous Consent and only three House
members had the good sense to vote against it, Ron Paul [of course],
Justin Amash and Paul Broun.
A misinforming blogger linked this article saying Obama vetoed indefinite detention NDAA 2012. They said indefinite detention doesn’t apply to US citizens because they were “already excluded by section 1022”, OMG, the only difference 1022 made is “REQUIRED” detention of non-citizens… doesn’t mean they can’t detain citizens. Unfortunately, until they pass something like the Due Process Guarantee Act, or better yet, remove it from the law with the Ron Paul AMENDMENT H.R.3785 indefinite detention does apply to US citizens.
http://saynotocorporateamerica.blogspot.com/2011/12/your-allotted-amount-of-freedom-has.html
Thanks for this
Less we forget, this Administration has shown its willingness to use Orwellian double-speak when it comes to the Constitution (the highest Law of the Land). The article stated…
“The second step toward limiting the NDAA is less immediately
effective, but might be more important in the long run. At 10 a.m. this
morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Due Process Guarantee Act, a bill introduced late last year in the wake of the NDAA’s passage.
Drafted
in response to concerns that section 1021 of the NDAA authorizes the
indefinite military detention of US citizens picked up on US soil, the
Due Process Guarantee Act would protect both citizens and lawful
permanent residents arrested in the US against being detained
indefinitely under a military rationale. It would set a baseline
prohibition on indefinite military detention in these cases, allowing it
to be used only when Congress explicitly provides for it.”But we have seen this Administration act first and worry later. So when AG Holder says in response to the illegal killing of American citizens…
“Some have argued that the President is required to get permission from a
federal court before taking action against a United States citizen who
is a senior operational leader of al Qaeda or associated forces. This is
simply not accurate. “Due process” and “judicial process” are not one
and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The
Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.”
Do we really expect any protection from lesser laws that come after what is clearly spelled out in the Constitution and upheld by years of Supreme Court decisions?I say there is little comfort for families after their loved ones have spent years imprisoned or executed without charge or trial.