> Obama attorneys ask court to restore indefinite detention power
> by Stephen C. Webster
> RawStory.com
> September 14, 2012
> Less than 24 hours after a judge blocked a law that gives the government
> the power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens without trial, attorneys
> for the Obama administration were already filing an appeal.
>
> U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in New York ruled Wednesday that
> the law is unconstitutional after The Nation Institute senior fellow and
> Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges brought a lawsuit alleging his
> free speech rights were being violated by the very possibility of the
> law being enforced, even though President Barack Obama declared in a
> signing statement that the administration will never detain Americans
> without trial.
>
> Judge Forrest, an Obama appointee, said that the language of the law was
> too vague and that Congress must better define “what conduct comes
> within its scope,” or else it could be applied to people like the
> plaintiff to chill free speech activity and the practice of journalism.
>
> Congressional Republicans crafted the bill to make it much more
> difficult to shut down the Guantanamo Bay military prison, compelling a
> vote on indefinite detention powers by tying it to the National Defense
> Authorization Act (NDAA), a military spending bill late last year.
>
> Thursday’s filing may come as a surprise to many, given the
> administration’s lengthy signing statement that insists authorizing
> indefinite detention of Americans “would break with our most important
> traditions and values as a nation.”
>
> “Judge Forrest’s decision firmly rejects governmental overreach,”
> plaintiff attorney Bruce Afran said in a media advisory. ” We now have a
> judgment that the NDAA, by threatening indefinite military detention as
> the price of speech, violates the First Amendment and threatens core
> American values.”
>
> “The federal court has denied the dangerous notion that American
> civilians can be taken into military custody and that the President is
> above the law outside of the reach of the courts,” he added. “The
> decision is an affirmation of the American constitution.”
>
> By Friday morning, petition site Demand Progress said more than 60,000
> people signed a form asking Obama not to appeal the ruling. “If we don’t
> do anything, they’ll keep fighting to defend this law!” the petition
> site declared.
>
>
>
> http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/14/obama-attorneys-ask-court-to-restore-indefinite-detention-power/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29
>
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