SocraticGadfly: Obama gets half-win indefinite detention battle

March 07, 2009

Obama gets half-win indefinite detention battle

By having indicted suspected al-Qaeda agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri and moved his case to criminal court, the Obama Administration got the Supreme Court to not make a ruling on whether or not a president can indefinitely detain people.

The court did vacate a 2008 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress gave the president the power to indefinitely hold terrorism suspects under military guard, even if they were in the country legally.

Team Obama argued that with al-Marri moved to civilian court and indicted, the issues were “hypothetical.”

Obama also gets a political pass with the non-ruling.

Marri’s attorneys and the ACLU accept the half-loaf; what choice do they have?

But, the “hypothetical” argument continues a disturbing trend by Obama on civil liberties issues.

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