Constitutional victory: Controversial NDAA provisions blocked, at least temporarily, by federal judge

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: NDAA, Constitution, terrorism

(NaturalNews) In a rare display of constitutional patriotism by a government authority, an Obama-appointed federal judge has put an indefinite block on the egregious National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest of Manhattan, N.Y., ruled in favor of plaintiffs who earlier had sued the Obama administration over the bill's unconstitutional arrest and detainment provisions, which provide no protection for American citizens.

The loosely-worded Section 1021 of the bill cunningly grants the president unrestrained authority to use military force in detaining practically anyone for any suspected "terrorist-related" activity, without warrant and without a trial (http://www.naturalnews.com). This section, which was the primary focus of the lawsuit, admittedly provides no protection for American citizens, and is patently unconstitutional no matter how you look at it.

"The statute at issue places the public at undue risk of having their speech chilled for the purported protection from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and 'associated forces' -- i.e., 'foreign terrorist organizations," said Forrest in her opinion. "The vagueness of Section 1021 does not allow the average citizen, or even the government itself, to understand with the type of definiteness to which our citizens are entitled, or what conduct comes within its scope."

Unless the U.S. Congress amends the bill to protect Americans against having their constitutional rights abolished in the name of national security, NDAA will remain blocked, at least formally. However, NDAA is really just an extension of the horrific USA Patriot Act, which was the Bush administration's precursor to NDAA that was passed immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks (http://www.scn.org/ccapa/pa-vs-const.html).

Obama administration appears to have fully intended to use NDAA against American citizens

Speaking on the details of how the case has proceeded thus far, Judge Forrest explained that Obama attorneys made absolutely no attempt to defend the administration against the allegations. They also made no attempt to claim that the ambiguous provisions were intended only for foreign suspects, which in and of itself points to sinister intentions with the bill.

"The government was given a number of opportunities at the hearing and in its briefs to state unambiguously that the type of expressive and associational activities engaged in by plaintiffs -- or others -- are not within Section 1021," said Judge Forrest. "It did not. This court therefore must credit the chilling impact on First Amendment rights as reasonable -- and real."

Efforts to amend NDAA to specifically protect American citizens on U.S. soil from illegal arrest and detainment, however, have been met with resistance by "neoconservatives" such as Charles "Cully" Stimson, a former Bush administration official who is now Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He and others claim that amending NDAA will somehow encourage more terrorists to come to the U.S. (http://dailycaller.com).

These wildly absurd claims, however, were enough to convince the traitorous House of Representatives to recently vote down an amendment authored by Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mi.) and Adam Smith (D-Wa.) that would have prohibited the detainment, capture, or arrest of any person in the U.S under NDAA. According to The Daily Caller, the House rejected this amendment in an overwhelming vote of 238 to 182.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.bloomberg.com