By Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU at 6:44pm
June: best known for school ending, kids’ going to camp, longer days, and increasing temperatures. Also known for being Torture Awareness Month. And, tomorrow, June 26, is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (as declared by the U.N. in 1997).
By Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU at 2:29pm
Rhode Island’s state legislature adjourned on Tuesday – or, according to their floor calendars, sometime after 2 am on Wednesday morning. (Ouch!) As in most state legislatures, the last day of session saw a flurry of activity, a rush to pass important bills that legislators could not allow to die with the session. Among those must-pass bills in the Rhode Island House of Representatives? A resolution calling on Congress to repeal Sections 1021 and 1022 of the Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Those are the dangerous detention provisions authorizing the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield. The members of the Rhode Island House, like so many of you, found those provisions so abhorrent that they could not go home for the summer/campaign season until they had officially expressed their disapproval to Congress.
Today USA Today ran an editorial proclaiming “Indefinite detention is un-American.” We couldn’t agree more. The editorial states:
In the decade since the 9/11 attacks, Congress has been willing to do almost anything to ward off more terrorist strikes. It has given the government broad authority to hunt, hold and try suspected terrorists. Trouble is, the law is written so broadly that the government would have little difficulty applying it to virtually anyone.
By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:26am
The amendment makes clear that the U.S. is off-limits to indefinite military detention and that military commissions cannot be used for civilians in the United States.
This week the House will debate the NDAA for fiscal year 2013. We'll be monitoring the debate and pulling for an amendment that fixes the terrible detention provisions in last year's bill.
Congress is back, so we’re looking at a busy schedule this week.
As we mentioned last week, this Wednesday the House Armed Services Committee will mark up this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. We’re keeping a close eye on NDAA amendments, which could affect several diverse civil liberties issues, including LGBT rights, indefinite detention, reproductive rights, and military sexual trauma.
