State and local governments resist NDAA detention provisions

For Immediate Release: January 26, 2012

Contact: Mike Maharrey Communications Director
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Provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act may allow for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, but the feds could find they get no cooperation from some state and local officials.

Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) introduced HB1160, which would, “Prevent any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency or the armed forces of the United States in the investigation, prosecution, or detainment of a United States citizen in violation of the Constitution of Virginia.”

On Wednesday, a House subcommittee passed the bill 6-3, moving it closer to a full House vote.

And sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center say as many as ten states will consider legislation or resolutions in response to the detention provisions in section 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA. Lawmakers in Rhode Island and Washington will likely introduce resolutions authored by the Rhode Island Liberty Coalition within the next week. Additionally, local governments, including Fremont County, Colo. and El Paso County, Colo., have passed resolution condemning the detention provisions.

“Federal politicians never seem to repeal federal law. It’s going to take ‘We the People’ in our states to stand up and say, ‘No!’ to this unconstitutional monster,” Tenth Amendment Center executive director Michael Boldin said.

The TAC’s legal team developed model legislation addressing the NDAA detention provisions declaring, ”The Legislature finds that the enactment into law by the United States Congress of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, Public Law Number 112-81, is inimical to the liberty, security and well-being of the people of (STATE), and was adopted by the United States Congress in violation of the limits of federal power in United States Constitution”

Tenth Amendment Center communications director Mike Maharrey likens state efforts to stop potential detention of Americans under NDAA to northern states’ refusal to cooperate with fugitive slave laws in the 1850s.

“It is clear to me, and I am far from alone in this view, that the detention provisions in the NDAA are vague, overbroad and open to interpretation. That leaves me to trust in the good character and moral clarity of Barack Obama, Rick Santorum or whoever happens to reside at the White House, to protect me and my fellow Americans from abuse of this power. No thanks.” he said. “During the latter days of slavery, state and local governments in northern states stepped in and thwarted the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Acts, which allowed the federal government to arrest and detain black people, and send them back into slavery with little or no due process. We laud these men and women as heroes. I have no doubt that history will prove equally kind to those standing up for the most basic rights of Americans today.”

To track Liberty Preservation Acts across the U.S., click  HERE.

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The Tenth Amendment Center exists to promote and advance a return to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and explicitly declared in the Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism.