On September 12 with little fanfare or national publicity U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York permanently enjoined enforcement of certain provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.
Among other things, the act authorizes the president to detain American citizens, indefinitely, without trial. The controversial provision purports to authorize future detentions and ratify those already accomplished under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which was passed just days following the September 11 attacks. Unlike the AUMF, however, this statute expressly authorizes the executive and the military to detain any person who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks.”
