PANDA NDAA Updates

BOWLING GREEN – Activists around the nation have raised warnings about the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)’s detention provisions,  sections 1021 and 1022, since the law was signed on December 31st, 2011. Alarm about those citizen detention provisions has now reached a Texas Senate race, and two challengers are vying for the support of the NDAA Resistance.

Dwayne Stovall, a candidate for U.S. Senate, released a public statement standing with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) against the “fast-tracked” 2014 NDAA on January 25. Senator Cruz opposed the 2014 NDAA because there was no fix to the detention provisions in 2012:

“The Constitution does not allow President Obama, or any President, to apprehend an American citizen, arrested on U.S. soil, and detain these citizens indefinitely without a trial. When I ran for office, I promised the people of Texas I would oppose any National Defense Authorization Act that did not explicitly prohibit the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens. Although this legislation does contain several positive provisions that I support, it does not ensure our most basic rights as American citizens are protected.”

Stovall noted:

“(January 25, 2014) – Tea Party-endorsed candidate for U. S. Senate, Dwayne Stovall, vigorously opposes the NDAA legislation recently fast-tracked through the Senate and passed with Sen. John Cornyn’s approval. The 493-page legislation embodies much of what is wrong with the federal government and highlights the reason that John Cornyn frequently gets it wrong for Texas…”

Yet although Stovall is challenging current Senator John Cornyn, a pro-NDAA Senator, he will be facing a further challenge from Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX). Congressman Stockman is an amici curiae on Hedges v. Obama, a Federal lawsuit challenging the 2012 NDAA, section 1021, as unConstitutional. Though it is implied, Stovall does not go so far as to mention the detention provisions in his press release, while Congressman Stockman has put words to action. It remains to be seen which candidate takes a stronger stance against the 2012 NDAA this election.

In either case, thanks to the work of activists and grassroots organizers throughout the country sounding the alarm, it appears the NDAA will be a key issue in the minds of both voters and candidates in at least one U.S. Senate race.

You can make it an issue in every race. Show up at your town hall, ask hard questions, and show up at the debates. Make the NDAA a key issue in every race, and little by little, town by town, city by city, we can win this.

Until then, the Resistance marches on.

http://pandaunite.org/takeback

Dan Johnson is the Founder and National Director of People Against the NDAA