Senate Passes Bill Opening Door to Indefinite Detention

Controversial Defense Bill to be Signed by President Obama

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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WASHINGTON – Following the House’s passage of the bill last night, the Senate today passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision that leading members of Congress support using to indefinitely detain without charge or trial even American citizens and others picked up in the United States itself. The bill will now go to the president’s desk for signature.

Though President Obama had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, he has reversed his position and has signaled he will sign the bill.

“President Obama still has time to reconsider his decision to sign this dangerous bill into law,” said Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. “We encourage the president to seriously consider what it will mean for America, for the first time since the McCarthy era, to enshrine indefinite detention without charge or trial right into the statute books.”