National Defense Authorization Act

Obama, a former Constitutional law professor,

The National Defense Authorization Act is a United States federal law that has been enacted for each of the past 48 years to specify the budget and expenditures of theUnited States Department of Defense.^[1]

A recent controversial provision in the NDAA act for 2012 has received critical attention^[2] because Sections 1021, 1031, 1032 and 1034 allows for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens,^[3] a provision which is unconstitutional, although it has not been formally ruled as such within judicial review.^[4] As passed, the 2012 bill includes language in Section 1032 stating the intent is not to change existing common law, such as Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which ruled in favor of detention of U.S. citizens and lawful residents. Citizens of the United States are statutorily excluded only from the "requirement for military custody" in Section 1032, which provides the executive branch discretion whether to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens within military detention centers, or alternatively in the Federal prison system. Full text of S. 1867 as passed.

The bill passed with 93 'yea' votes to 7 'nay' in the U.S. Senate, and is now available for view by the public.^[5] As of early December, the bill, now known as H.R.1540, is under review by the House of Representatives. H.R.1540 is being sponsored by Rep Howard McKeon, and is cosponsored by Rep Adam Smith. Bill H.R.1540 and its progress can be examined by visiting http://www.house.gov/ and searching H.R.1540 or S. 1867.^[6][7][8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act