WARNING THE WORLD IS ENDING! …at least according to the internet.
According to reports S. 1867 will end freedom in the United States by allowing for “permanent detention” of United States citizens.
The problem can best be summed up by my favorite Abraham Lincoln quote: “The trouble with quotes on the internet is that it’s difficult to determine whether or not they are genuine.”
The fact is that rumors of our demise have been exaggerated. People on the left have been trying to take on the Department of Defense for awhile now, and they decided that S. 1867 was the way to do it. The real problem is that they have duped people on the right into joining them.
Even conservative stalwart Senator Rand Paul gave a speech on the topic.
But the fact is that this bill does not end civil rights in America. In fact, this bill doesn’t do what they say at all.
On page 426 of the bill there is a clause that allows the Armed Forces to detain covered persons from “subsection b”. The good news for people like me who hate federal law because it is so complicated is that subsection b is right there! It says that subsection b only includes those who were involved in the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda, or the Taliban.
This part of the law doesn’t change anything from the status quo. I know people who have corresponded with Senator DeMint, likely the most outspoken conservative in the US Senate, and they agree that the text itself does not do what they claim.
The moral of the story is this: don’t believe everything you see online. Even this post misquotes Lincoln! Check out what you hear. Don’t panic. Learn the facts.
-Posted by Jeremiah Lorrig
§1031(b) is a little trickier than that. It targets not only al-Qaeda, but also anyone who “substantially supported” al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or “associated forces that are engaged in hostilities” against the US and its allies. See 1031(b)(2). These persons can be detained “without trial” until the “end of the hostilities”. See 1031(c)(1).
ReplyDeleteS. 1867 also doesn’t say whether the President can do this on US soil or not. Detaining US citizens who are caught overseas is one thing – detaining them from New York or Orlando is quite another. Our government is currently split on this issue. S. 1867 doesn’t address the issue. As Democratic Senator Dick Durbin put it, “The Supreme Court will decide who can be detained. The United States Senate will not.”
So if the President decides that a US citizen has “substantially supported” al-Qaeda, he can detain that citizen, without trial, until the War on Terror ends. Note that the President doesn’t have to meet some standard of proof. He just has to say “This guy’s a terrorist.” And our own Senate, which wrote the bill, doesn’t know whether it’ll apply on US soil or not.