Rep. Richard Hudson (NC-08)
♦ Some questions have been raised recently in this publication about my vote for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. I’d like to take the opportunity point out the facts about this important bill that funds our military in order to keep us safe at home and protect our interests abroad.
As a true Constitutional Conservative, I understand and have a great appreciation for the importance of protecting our right to privacy. When first examining the bill, one of my top priorities was to refuse supporting any type of program that trades our guaranteed civil liberties for the promise of security.
The issue that has raised some concern is a provision that stops President Obama from closing the prison in Guantanamo Bay and transferring over 150 terrorists to American soil or returning them to their home nations. This section of the bill, known commonly as the indefinite detention provision, specifically stipulates that it does not apply to U.S. citizens.
In order to further codify this principle and ensure beyond any shred of doubt that American citizens’ rights would not be infringed, I supported two amendments that were included in the final version that was signed into law.
The first establishes that nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (P.L. 107-40), or any other law, shall deny the availability of the writ of habeas corpus to any U.S. citizen apprehended inside the United States. The amendment also requires that the federal government has the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that any U.S. citizen is an unprivileged enemy belligerent.
The second requires the Secretary of Defense to submit an annual report to Congress on U.S. citizens subject to military detention that includes: the name of each U.S. citizen; the legal justification for such detention; and the steps taken to provide judicial process for or to release each such citizen. The amendment stipulates that the report shall be made available to all Members of Congress and be created in unclassified form.
All of these components provided me with adequate assurance that our constitutionally enshrined civil liberties would be protected. At that point, I was proud to lend my support to this important bill to provide for the common defense.
