DETENTION OF U.S. PERSONS: WHAT IS THE EXISTING LAW?

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2012, Issue No. 10
February 6, 2012

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/


** DETENTION OF U.S. PERSONS: WHAT IS THE EXISTING LAW?
** MILITARY INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN ONLINE


DETENTION OF U.S. PERSONS: WHAT IS THE EXISTING LAW?

When Congress passed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, it
included provisions that authorized U.S. armed forces to detain persons who
are captured in the conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated
forces. However, Congress also said that those provisions did not provide
any new authority to detain U.S. citizens or others who may be captured in
the United States.

"Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or
authority relating to the detention of United States citizens...," section
1021(e) of the Act states. "We are simply codifying existing law," said
Sen. Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the time.

But this was an evasion, since existing law regarding the detention of
U.S. persons is indeterminate in important respects.

A new report from the Congressional Research Service fleshes out the law
of detention, identifying what is known to be true as well as what is
unsettled and unresolved.

It is perfectly clear, for example, that a U.S. citizen who fought
alongside enemy forces against the United States on a foreign battlefield
could be lawfully detained. This was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in
the case Hamdi v. Rumsfeld.

On the other hand, the CRS report explains, "the President's legal
authority to militarily detain terrorist suspects apprehended in the United
States has not been definitively settled."

Nor has Congress helped to settle it. "This bill does not endorse either
side's interpretation," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein on December 1 about the
defense authorization act, "but leaves it to the courts to decide."

So if a detention of a U.S. person does occur, the CRS said, "it will be
up to a court to determine Congress's intent when it enacted the AUMF [the
2001 Authorization to Use Military Force], or alternatively, to decide
whether the law as it was subsequently developed by the courts and
executive branch sufficiently established that authority for such detention
already exists."

Up to now, "Lower courts that have addressed questions the Supreme Court
left unanswered have not achieved a consensus on the extent to which
Congress has authorized the detention without trial of U.S. persons as
'enemy combatants,' and Congress has not so far clarified its intent."

The new CRS report traces the development of U.S. detention policy from
the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 through the Civil War, the two World
Wars, and the Cold War up to the present day. See "Detention of U.S.
Persons as Enemy Belligerents" by CRS legislative attorney Jennifer K.
Elsea, February 1, 2012:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R42337.pdf

Some other new (or newly updated) CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News
that have not been made readily available to the public include the
following.

"Terrorist Watch List Screening and Brady Background Checks for Firearms,"
February 1, 2012:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/R42336.pdf

"War Powers Resolution: Presidential Compliance," February 1, 2012:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33532.pdf

"The U.S. Postal Service's Financial Condition: Overview and Issues for
Congress," January 27, 2012:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41024.pdf


MILITARY INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN ONLINE

The Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin is a quarterly journal
published by the U.S. Army to promote awareness and discussion of current
topics in military intelligence. Although unclassified, the Bulletin is
not made available online by the Army. Recent volumes can be found,
however, on the Federation of American Scientists website.

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/mipb/index.html

The two latest issues are devoted to "Intelligence in the Current
Environment" (April-June 2011) and "Enabling Intelligence Analysis"
(July-September 2011).


_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood