US Totalitarianism Wins Again As Appeals Court Brings NDAA’s Indefinite Military Detention Back

– US Totalitarianism Wins Again As Appeals Court Brings NDAA’s Indefinite Military Detention Back (ZeroHedge, July 17, 2013):

Back in September we, somewhat naively, penned “US Totalitarianism Loses Major Battle As Judge Permanently Blocks NDAA’s Military Detention Provision“ in which we said that “in May, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled in favor of a temporary injunction blocking the enforcement of the authorization for military detention. Today, the war against the true totalitarian terror won a decisive battle, when in a 112-opinion, Judge Forrest turned the temporary injunction, following an appeal by the totalitarian government from August 6, into a permanent one.” Sadly, the “victory” lasted about 10 months. Today, US totalitarianism wins again.

• U.S. APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT PERMANENT INJUNCTION THAT HAD LIMITED U.S.
  GOVERNMENT’S USE OF INDEFINITE MILITARY DETENTION — COURT RULING

In other words, every legal decision will be binding… until Obama’s cronies in the 13 circuit courts of the appellate system get a tap on the shoulder. And good luck with the SCOTUS.

And with that, the time to be on the lookout for black helicopters is back.

More from Reuters:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a lower court order that would have prevented the U.S. military from indefinitely detaining people believed to have helped al Qaeda or the Taliban.

The 3-0 decision by a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York was a setback for journalists, activists and others who had argued that the law put them in danger of indefinite detention.

It was a victory for the Obama administration, which said the practice is needed to fight terrorism.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the law.

The provision in question is part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which the U.S. Congress passes annually to authorize programs of the Defense Department.

It lets the government indefinitely detain people it deems to have “substantially supported” al Qaeda, the Taliban or “associated forces.”

Journalists and activists whose work relates to overseas conflicts, including Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges and an Icelandic spokeswoman for Wikileaks, complained that the law could subject them to being locked up for exercising constitutionally-protected rights.

In September 2012, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest issued a permanent injunction preventing the United States from invoking the part of the law authorizing indefinite detentions, after granting a temporary injunction in May.

Forrest, whom Obama appointed to the federal bench in 2011, had found the provision violated the Constitution in part because its language is too vague.

The Obama administration won an emergency halt to that injunction so it could appeal.

In lifting the injunction, the 2nd Circuit panel did not address the constitutional issues.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who sat with the 2nd Circuit by designation and wrote the decision, said American plaintiffs like Hedges lack standing because the provision “says nothing at all about the President’s authority to detain American citizens.”