Chris Hedges Responds to NDAA Defeat, "It is a black day for those who care about liberty"

[geek tragedy]

93. Thoughtful response. A few points in return:

1) The ACLU actually agrees with the court's conclusion re: detention of US citizens:

The ACLU does not believe that the NDAA authorizes military detention of American citizens or anyone else in the United States.

http://www.aclu.org/indefinite-detention-endless-worldwide-war-and-2012-national-defense-authorization-act

2) A court's opinion is more than, er, an opinion. It becomes part of the law itself. The 2nd Circuit's interpretation of the law is binding. It appears to me that the appeals court went further than it had to in denying standing--it could have said "merely speculative" and left it at that. Instead, they said no standing and then ruled that the law was essentially harmless--essentially the 2nd circuit defanged the NDAA when they didn't have to.

3) Re: non-citizens, note that the court also held that the NDAA is irrelevant to lawful resident aliens and anyone else captured or arrested inside the US. Essentially, all that's left are non-citizens grabbed outside the US. This includes everyone from a poor innocent schlub kidnapped by the CIA from his home to battlefield detainees in Afghanistan. So, no one size fits all there.

4) The standing requirement is as old as the constitution itself--essentially there has to be a real case or controversy for the court to entertain arguments, not speculation. Of course, conservative justices are more in favor of it, since that shuts down citizens' efforts at restraining the government and especially corporations.