After an overwhelmingly successful run through the California legislature last months, Governor Jerry Brown has signed AB351, a law banning all cooperation with the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) or any other federal attempts to indefinitely detain people.
The NDAA allows the president to place people into indefinite detention by the US military without charges or a trial on “national security” grounds and has sparked a series of lawsuits from Americans who fear detention as political dissidents.
The NDAA has been hugely controversial and several states are considering limited legislation to that end, but California took the matter a step farther and not only forbade cooperation state officials with the NDAA, but also every other federal law present or future that might be used for open-ended detentions.
Though the Obama Administration has yet to use the NDAA for any detentions, they and the Bush administration before them have both claimed the power to place people into indefinite detention, and continue to hold a number of detainees, most famously at Guantanamo Bay, for whom no charges were ever filed and for which there are no plans to ever release them.
California’s resolution was backed heavily by civil liberties groups, and that it got such overwhelming bipartisan support to pass unanimously in the state senate and only get a single “no” vote in the assembly was touted as a “big deal” by Tenth Amendment Center Communications Director Mike Maharrey.
“Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle came together and passed legislation to protect against federal kidnapping,” Maharrey said, adding that “by saying, ‘No!’ to indefinite detention and refusing any state cooperation, the California legislature and Gov. Brown just ensured it will be very hard to whisk somebody away in the dead of night and hold them without due process.”
The Obama Administration has yet to react to the new law.
Yeah right Jerry, when the Federal Gestapo plans a SWAT raid to nab or assassinate an "enemy of the state" do you think your Cal State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies are going to pass up a chance to participate? Face it, your state helped elect the guy that's claiming the power to use the NDAA for whatever he wants — and I'll bet you voted for him too.
You are spot on with this.
So if Romney had won the state would you think this was a good thing?
Whoohooo! And that's almost as far as states should take it, and it's possible no one else would if not for CA's leadership.
Songs should be written about it!
The hippies won't come back – you – say.
Mellow out or you will pay.
Mellow out or YOU WILL PAY!
[…] You will crack, you little clown,
when you mess with President Brown!
When you mess with President Brown!
persnipoles got a good grove going…………..
California needs to repeat this for NSA spying.
There’s no ban here.
I love these little foot-stompings…but think about it…when the USG jackboots come along and snatch someone – for the ubiquitous and ambiguously defined “national security” – they are not going to broadcast their snatching and they surely won't ask for permission. And they don't have to tell anyone after the fact. And if their nefarious deed is detected, what is Gov. Moonbeam going to do? Threaten to secede?
Very true. But to the extent they're really helpless to prevent, I'd really be satisfied with repudiation and non-cooperation.
all kidding aside
secession IS the answer of last resort, and it is most definitely not against the constitution !
but to make that threat credible, americans have to return to thinking of themselves as californians,
oregonians, virginians, etc., first and make it clear to washington that its mandate can be revoked by the states.
this really ought to enter public dialog imho
It's not called the People's Republic of California for nothing. I hope Lassen, Modoc, Siskyiou and other N. California counties can secede and join with other Oregon counties to form the State of Jefferson. Not likely, but a nice thought.
Brown is popular, respected and has access to money.
It is about time for the progressive Dems, if they are serious, to put up a peace challenger to Hillary, Warren and the other hawks before they get us into THE BIG ONE with China – and that is where they are taking us – fast.
Brown on the other hand has been working hard to cultivate good relations between California and China.
He might be old enough to be a one termer – and so he could move without thought of re-election.
The major political parties are major institutions in our society. There must be tough antiwar factions in each. So far we have the libertarians on the Republican side. On the Dem side we have PDA, but they put Party over principle every time. They do not qualify – far from it.
Yeah, but this is still good. You need the establishment to stand up to the establishment.
This is a good move back to habeas corpus in the United States.
If it sounds too good to be true it likely is. Brown is a douchebag traitor as well. Look at all the anti gun legislation he has signed recently not to mention all the other treason coming out of Sacramento and DC. I don't trust him any more than I do Pelosi, Bush, Obama etc