Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Bill of Rights' Birthday, Indefinite Detention and the Twenty-Eighth Amendment

Today is the birthday of the Bill of Rights (the first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution).  What better way to celebrate this date than for The Congress to pass a monstrous assault on the same?  I won't bore readers with all of the problems with the NDAA (I'll let my former law professor Jonathan Turley do that http://jonathanturley.org/2011/12/15/obama-breaks-promise-to-veto-bill-allowing-indefinite-detention-of-americans/).

Instead, what should we do to fix it?  I propose the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution:


TWENTY-EIGHTH AMENDMENT
1.  No person, citizen or otherwise, shall be detained, held, or kept in custody for more than one day without an appearance before a judicial officer and the filing of criminal charges, unless validly held as a prisoner of war pursuant to any international treaties and agreements regarding the same entered into by the United States.
2.  This Amendment shall apply to the United States, and the various States individually.
3.  Congress and the States shall have concurrent power to enforce this Amendment.

What do you think?
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2 comments:

  1. David SchramDecember 15, 2011 at 5:56 PM

    Interesting, but of course section 2 is redundant as the Framers' original intent was that the 28th would apply to the states via the 14th.
    Section 3 is great -- I can't wait to see the New Hampshire Navy trying to liberate the illegally detained Gitmo prisoners from their Federal oppressors.

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  2. Ramon Rozas IIIDecember 15, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    @Dave - I thught s.2 was a good idea; tomorrow the SCOTUS may abolish incorporation! And s.3 was intended to address state issues, but that is a good image!

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