Virginia Del. Robert G.
Marshall (R-Prince William) recently submitted an 11-page legal memo requesting
Gov. Bob McDonnell sign Marshall’s HB 1160[1], a piece of legislation
that would disallow state agencies and their employees from assisting in the
military detention of U.S. Citizens.
House Bill 1160, easily
sailing through both chambers of Virginia’s legislature, attempts to plug the
hole of a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012
that effectively allows the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial
by the government.
McDonnell, the hawkish
conservative that he is, has stated his concerns with the bill for the
consequences it might have on information-sharing between state and local law
enforcement.
On this rarest of rare
occasions, Marshall’s HB 1160 is a necessary panacea to the open ended nature
of the NDAA towards the indefinite government detention of U.S. citizens
without trial.
Terrorist or no
terrorist, the U.S. Constitution still upholds the right of habeas corpus for
U.S. citizens. Our country’s founding laws and principles should not be
undercut by the perceived need for safety and alleged risk reduction. HB 1160
is only, therefore, putting back into place what was disposed of during the
“war on terror.”
We have exhausted too
many individual rights as a country on this vague and ever pervasive war on
terror. As was argued at the beginning of the debate over the Patriot Act and
its successors, if the U.S. continues to pull back the reins on the rights of
Americans, those who sought to do America harm will have already won.
The threat of terrorism
is real. But what is even more real to me is the threat of individual rights
being eroded by a war that looks to have no end.
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