An Update on the NDAA

       In January I wrote a brick-like post about the National Defense Authorization Act. If you're a fan of politics or unnecessarily complicated government policies, you can read the entire post here. In short, one section of the law clarifies and expands powers the government possesses under the laws of war, and applies them to the "war on terrorism," giving the power to use the military to detain indefinitely terrorism suspects. The law does not technically expand government authority as both foreigners and U.S. citizens can already be detained indefinitely (though they may challenge their detention in the courts). The issue is instead that the NDAA codifies into law a practice that was questionable in the first place.
       My parents listen to NPR a lot, and a few days ago I heard an interesting story, here, about how the Obama administration is applying the controversial law. It turns out the president was against the provision on detention in the first place, issuing a statement at the time saying basically that he didn't agree with this law and wouldn't use the powers it gave him," and as the article details, Obama has created a wide range of exemptions that virtually nullify the law.
       It's an interesting story, and one that increases my confidence in the president's principles about civil liberties. It's also interesting, however, to see easy it was for the president has to ignore the wishes of congress. Although the executive branch, in principle, is supposed to carry out the legislation and priorities of the legislative branch, in reality the president has a great deal of power to craft policies of his own, like Obama's decision to gut the NDAA detention provision. I'm not sure the power of the chief executive is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, as it's easy to see situations in which a president could theoretically do something similar to what Obama did, except with less admirable intentions. One example that comes to mind is when Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeus Corpus during the Civil War without congressional approval. In this case, however, the president seems to be moving in the right direction.

Image Credit: http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/216858-obama-citizenship-question-goes-to-u.s.-supreme-court