This law is outrageous and unconstitutional.
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Welcome to marshal law!
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President Obama is not the man we hoped he would be. He is instead a traitor to …
President Obama is not the man we hoped he would be. He is instead a traitor to the US Constitution. I will not vote for such a traitor. I will call for his imprisonment.
Many Americans are concerned about the recent amendment to the NDAA bill that was signed into law by President Obama. We should be. This assault on our rights is very difficult to read and understand. The difficulty probably has more to do with sloppy drafting than intentional misrepresentation. Anyway, I decided to do a sort of John Yoo interpretation of the thing and write it out in one paragraph of plain language. Here it is:
“Congress agrees with the President’s claim that he can order the forceable seizure, transportation and endless military imprisonment of any American citizen without legal proof and without access to the courts. The President’s chosen Americans can be imprisoned in the US or any other country or corporation the President chooses.”
I am a veteran and a retired judge. I know something but not everything about statutory interpretation. I have also been an advocate and know a little about how to play on that one-way street. For an American imprisoned under this act it really doesn’t matter what any real judge thinks about this law anyway because the imprisoned American has no access to the courts anyway. Kind of a snake eating its tail sort of thing. I’d really appreciate a persuasive rebuttal to my interpretation of this law written in plain language.
How does a Constitutional Law Professor not get the provisions of this law which are in direct conflict with the rights enumerated in the Constitution? This law abandons the right of habeas corpus, the fifth and sixth Amendments. The right of trial by jury of your peers, the right to face accusers in a court of law with legal council before being imprisoned, the concept that persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a duly appointed court in the jurisdiction in which the crime occurred. These are basic rights to our democracy and should never be discarded by fear.
Further, the law allows our military to violate protections established by Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits the US military from being used as a civilian police force. All of these provisions are based on fear of a defeated enemy. Nothing could be more shameful for any politician to violate their oath of office than this egregious act. What is even more galling is that this law was not an appropriations bill and will not provide any funds to do any thing for the military. It merely authorized the Government to do the tasked defined.
Whether this President uses this law to corrupt the Constitution or not is not important. What is important is the barrier to dictatorship is now much closer than ever before. It may simply be a matter of time.
In the coming elections, we must weigh the acts of not just this President, but also of those in the Senate and House who drew this horrible amendment or allowed it to pass.
I, too, vowed that if Obama signed this Bill, I would not vote for him. And I am closely watching the actions of those representing me in Washington and my State Houses. We need to cleanse our government at all levels if we are ever to regain our freedoms - - And I am convinced it will be far more difficult to reclaim them than it was to first declare them.
This law is outrageous and unconstitutional.
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Welcome to marshal law!
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President Obama is not the man we hoped he would be. He is instead a traitor to the US Constitution. I will not vote for such a traitor. I will call for his imprisonment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many Americans are concerned about the recent amendment to the NDAA bill that was signed into law by President Obama. We should be. This assault on our rights is very difficult to read and understand. The difficulty probably has more to do with sloppy drafting than intentional misrepresentation. Anyway, I decided to do a sort of John Yoo interpretation of the thing and write it out in one paragraph of plain language. Here it is:
“Congress agrees with the President’s claim that he can order the forceable seizure, transportation and endless military imprisonment of any American citizen without legal proof and without access to the courts. The President’s chosen Americans can be imprisoned in the US or any other country or corporation the President chooses.”
I am a veteran and a retired judge. I know something but not everything about statutory interpretation. I have also been an advocate and know a little about how to play on that one-way street. For an American imprisoned under this act it really doesn’t matter what any real judge thinks about this law anyway because the imprisoned American has no access to the courts anyway. Kind of a snake eating its tail sort of thing. I’d really appreciate a persuasive rebuttal to my interpretation of this law written in plain language.
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How does a Constitutional Law Professor not get the provisions of this law which are in direct conflict with the rights enumerated in the Constitution? This law abandons the right of habeas corpus, the fifth and sixth Amendments. The right of trial by jury of your peers, the right to face accusers in a court of law with legal council before being imprisoned, the concept that persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a duly appointed court in the jurisdiction in which the crime occurred. These are basic rights to our democracy and should never be discarded by fear.
Further, the law allows our military to violate protections established by Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits the US military from being used as a civilian police force. All of these provisions are based on fear of a defeated enemy. Nothing could be more shameful for any politician to violate their oath of office than this egregious act. What is even more galling is that this law was not an appropriations bill and will not provide any funds to do any thing for the military. It merely authorized the Government to do the tasked defined.
Whether this President uses this law to corrupt the Constitution or not is not important. What is important is the barrier to dictatorship is now much closer than ever before. It may simply be a matter of time.
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In the coming elections, we must weigh the acts of not just this President, but also of those in the Senate and House who drew this horrible amendment or allowed it to pass.
I, too, vowed that if Obama signed this Bill, I would not vote for him. And I am closely watching the actions of those representing me in Washington and my State Houses. We need to cleanse our government at all levels if we are ever to regain our freedoms - - And I am convinced it will be far more difficult to reclaim them than it was to first declare them.
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