[Infowarrior] - Ruling That Struck Down Military Detention Power Rejected

[Richard Forno]

Ruling That Struck Down Military Detention Power Rejected

By Chris Dolmetsch - Jul 17, 2013 11:30 AM ET

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-17/ruling-that-struck-down-military-detention-power-rejected.html

A federal judge’s ruling that struck down a controversial U.S. military-detention law as unconstitutional was overturned by an appeals court in New York because the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge it.

A group including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges sued President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in January, claiming the law may subject them to detention for acts protected by the U.S. Constitution, including writing and advocacy.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in September struck down parts of the law which allow for the U.S. to detain people providing support to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, on the grounds that it violates the First and Fifth amendments. The government appealed, arguing that her injunction blocking enforcement of those provisions, known as Section 1021, posed a threat to national security.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York today overturned Forrest’s decision in a 60-page ruling and lifted her injunction, saying that Hedges and another plaintiff weren’t eligible to challenge the law because it “simply says nothing about the government’s authority to detain citizens.”

“And while Section 1021 does have a real bearing on those who are neither citizens nor lawful resident aliens and who are apprehended abroad, the non-citizen plaintiffs also have failed to establish standing because they have not shown a sufficient threat that the government will detain them under Section 1021,” the court said.

Military Force

Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 affirmed the president’s authority to detain people under an earlier law, the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Those who may be held include people who “substantially supported” al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The case is Hedges v. Obama, 12-cv-00331, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The appeal is 12-3176, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York State Supreme Court at 8969 or cdolmetsch at bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Dunn at adunn8 at bloomberg.net

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