President Obama Signs Law Allowing Indefinite Detention, Anywhere in the World
President Barack Obama on this day signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contained a provision giving the U.S. government the authority to detain individuals indefinitely in locations around the world.
Obama expressed reservations about the provision, and had earlier talked about vetoing the NDAA, but he changed his mind and signed the bill into law.
The ACLU sharply criticized Obama and the new law in a 2010 report, Establishing the New Normal, which argued that the Obama administration had embraced all of the worst principles (excluding torture) underlying President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism.
In 1950, Congress passed the Emergency Detention Act, as a Cold War measure. Congress repealed the law in 1971 and President Richard Nixon signed the bill into law on September 25, 1971.
Read the ACLU report: ACLU, Establishing the New Normal: National Security, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights Under the Obama Administration (2010)
Find the ACLU “New Normal” report here
Can U.S. Citizens be indefinitely detained? Learn from Amnesty International
Learn more about indefinite detention and human rights