Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA)urged his colleagues on Monday to ensure that next year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) did not allow the military to detain anyone on U.S. soil without trial.
The NDAA of 2013 released by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard McKeon includes language stating that any person detained in the United States must have his or her day in court.
“I want thank the Chairman for including language that restates current law as it applies to Habeas Corpus, but we must do more to protect the Constitution,” Smith, a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said.
According to
Human Rights:
The Smith-Amash amendment would resolve two key questions that were left open during the last year’s NDAA debate on the detention of individuals suspected of involvement with terrorism. First, the Smith-Amash Amendment would ban indefinite military detention and military commission trials in the United States, making clear that individuals apprehended on U.S. soil who are suspected of terror-related activities can only be tried in a civilian court with all the corresponding constitutional protections. Second, the amendment would repeal a provision in the FY 2012 NDAA that requires that a category of foreign terrorism suspects be held in military custody, absent a presidential waiver.
Almost always I am complaining and kvetching about Adam Smith, Congressman from the Ninth Congressional District of Washington State, but Smith has been redistricted into a very blue congressional district and we in the new district are very hopeful of Smith's moving to the left. I've even been obliged to write a nice letter to him:
Habeas Corpus, Executive Orders, Indefinite Detention
Adam:
Thank you for your legislative actions to restore Habeas Corpus, a legacy of law from pre-Norman Britain, for your action to restore power to Congress from the hands of the Executive Branch, for acting to end indefinite detention.
By his actions, Smith is taking on the Armed Services Committee of the Senate and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan:
House and Senate Democrats are clashing over whether to bar the military from detaining terrorism suspects on U.S. soil.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Tuesday that he does not support a proposal from Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) to change the executive branch's power to prevent the indefinite detention of suspects on U.S. soil.
Smith is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, so the split divides the senior Democrats on military issues in each chamber.
