Dear ACLU Supporter,
The new year has just begun and we've already got our first big challenge. On New Year's Eve, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law. It contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. And it has no time or geographic limits. It can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.
Despite initial assurances that he would veto this outrageous bill, President Obama will now be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law.
He signed it. Now, we have to fight it wherever we can and for as long as it takes.Make it clear you won't rest until this outrage is reversed.
Sign the ACLU's pledge to fight worldwide indefinite detention for as long as it takes.Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA.
With your help, we will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally. If you believe that no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this President or any future president misusing this new detention authority, now is the time to act.
Commit to fighting indefinite detention for as long as it takes. Sign the ACLU pledge right now.Now more than ever, the defense of freedom is up to us. Let's prove that we're up to the task.
For freedom,
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director, ACLU
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DemandProgress Supporter,
President Obama just signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law despite startling provisions that will allow the military to indefinitely detain American citizens.
It's a travesty, defying basic principles of justice and due process in perhaps the most extreme respect our nation has ever seen.
Thankfully, several lawmakers are keeping up the fight. Senator Dianne Feinstein has introduced legislation to undo these provisions of the NDAA, in the form of the Due Process Guarantee Act. We need to urge other Senators to support it. Will you click here to ask your lawmakers to stand with us?The Due Process Guarantee Act of 2011 amends the Non-Detention Act of 1971 by providing that a Congressional authorization for the use of military force does not authorize the indefinite detention—without charge or trial—of U.S. citizens who are apprehended domestically.If there's enough of a public outcry, we have a real chance of making this happen:
More than 40 senators voted against the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA -- and that was before the media and general public caught on to what was happening.Please urge your Senators to remedy this terrible wrong. Just click here -- it'll only take a few seconds.It's been a tough year for civil libertarians -- thanks for keeping up the fight.
-Demand Progress
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