Jun 5, 2017 | Constitution, Healthcare, Immigration, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
Please understand! I am deeply offended when called either conservative or liberal. These are traps for the ignorant who wish to reduce my years of serious contemplation to a word so that a part of my readers can praise me (“Well done! “ “You are one of us!”). And the other part can dismiss me by a single word—even hate me. This is war, every bit as much as it was for the Founding Fathers and I will not be dismissed. There are Loyalist or Tories in our day just as there were in theirs and I stand to call them out, whether Democrats or Republicans.
My views are the Founders collective view. I draw from the same fountain of natural law as they did and appeal to the same “father of lights to illuminate my understanding” (Ben Franklin’s words at the Constitutional Convention), as they did. I am my own thinker.
I have been a college professor for many years and students sit in front of me just waiting to tag me with some label that did not then exist in the same way and dismiss me or marginalize me so that they do not have to think. As long as they are not successful they are teachable and have to deal with the inconsistencies of both ideologies—liberal and conservative. I have friends in both camps and sooner or latter they say to me, somewhat surprised, “I thought you were one of us.”
I, like George Washington, dislike political parties. Today both major parties undermine the Constitution and collective ignorance, reinforced by numbers, is more dangerous than individual ignorance. Neither uses the Constitution as first consideration in governing.
I publicly challenged the Republican Party for leading us into the Iraq Wars against Saddam Hussein because the evidence for doing so (9 11, weapons of mass destruction, preemption-–the concept that they would do something to us eventually) did not exist and had to be constantly changed to justify our presence. I did not oppose the war in Afghanistan because the evidence was there for 9 11 but I do now because we have no clear definable win objectives and lack the will to unleash everything we have to win. It is another Vietnam quagmire.
It was the George W. Bush administration that gave us the Patriot Act, which allowed the government to define terrorists as her own people and severely damaged the Bill of Rights. Republicans looked the other way as the National Security Agency (NSA) gave itself authority to gather and store in Bluffdale, Utah every electronic message of her own people. While the government looks within for the enemy, it fails to secure our borders, until now, from Middle Eastern intruders from countries with a known intent to harm us. With respect to national health care, something they unanimously opposed, and which has no constitutional basis, they now look more like Democrats who at least were not hypocritical in their desire to take-over a third of the economy. “Obamacare-light” is still Obamacare.
Democrats have taken spending to an unacceptable level and seem intent to risk collapsing the entire economy in doing so. With each crisis they help create, their remedy is always more government as they hamstring businesses that create our jobs with numberless rules and regulations.
Their model is not the Founders or the Constitution but socialist countries in Europe some of whom tax their people over 50% of their income and have far less freedom. A worshipful press has never properly explained Obama’s past connection with revolutionary Bill Ayer, Founder of the militant Whether Underground, which bombed government buildings in the seventies. While China, Cuba, and even Canada are showing clear signs of backing off socialism we seemed “hell bent” to rush into it under either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
Moreover, instead of investigating the Clinton Foundation or Clinton Classified Emails Scandals, that jeopardized national security of which there exists extensive documentation, far more than on Nixon’s Watergate, they push Russian influence in the Donald Trump election for which real documentation is non-existent. Amazing!
So what do I embrace? I usually drop a tear or two when the National Anthem is played. I am touched by George Washington who loved his country enough to risk his life in a doubtful cause failing to win a single battle the first year against England, the most powerful nation on earth, and refused pay from the government for his services as a general or as president. I love knowing that Founders and presidents acknowledge the hand of God in crisis and shamelessly went to him for help. I love the stories of servicemen who put their lives on the line to save a buddy. I have undying respect for those who served their country with the primary intent of saving freedom—even if they did not understand the motives of the politicians who sent them. I love people who stand for traditional values of honesty, integrity and morality and did not justify President Clinton’s numerous White House affairs.
So what am I? Only a typical American that wants to return to our base and thinks more people embrace this description than either party ideology. So please just call me a patriotic American. That is a title that I wear with honor.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Feb 5, 2017 | Constitution, Globalism, Immigration, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
Many still do not understand the significance of Trump’s Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) pullout. It was the most serious blow to the globalists in 100 years. In the political literature of the last 100 years internationalism, world government, new world order (NWO), world order and globalism are synonymous. They suggest a progressive transfer of national sovereignty to a higher level of government such as the United Nations. The idea of the 1950’s and 1960’s was to increasingly enlarge the UN until it was the recognized world government with total power. When possible this process continues.
Since countries have been slow to forfeit their national sovereignty to the UN, proponents next encouraged regional governments—uniting countries into geographical units, as for example the European Union, then later, when peoples and nations get used to this power transfer, unite them then into a single political unit. Since countries will never initially unite into a single political unit, the plan was to begin with economical unity then progress to the political unity desired, precisely as was successful in the E U. The unification of Europe into a regional government processed through the following five stages: European Coal and Steel Community, Common Market, European Economic Community, European Community, and finally European Union when political unity was possible.
The USSR, after the fall of communism in 1989, transformed itself into the Commonwealth of Independent States Free Trade Area (CISFTA)—a regional government of nations still under the control of Russia. The world has since been divided into other regional governments each following the European Union model and free trade agreements (economic persuasion) have been the favorite tool. Currently there are 23 such regional agreements each at a different stage in the unifications of the countries in their regions and most still saddled by the necessity of using the somewhat deceptive “free trade” terminology. In time the plan is to reduce 206 countries to less than 20 regional governments turning these countries into mere states of regional countries—a much more manageable world, globalists believe.
Some of these perspective regional governments have progressed beyond the need to keep the “free trade” terminology when they describe themselves as for example, the African Economic Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), both uniting large sections of Africa. The Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU) uniting northern Islamic Africa and the Middle East is another. South America is to be united by the Southern Cone Common Market, frequently referred to as Mercosur. It has progressed to the point that it now has a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which is a final step toward political unification. But most still need these words. Central Europe is to be united by the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) exists to unite countries from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka.
In the United States The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was to gradually unite Canada, the United States and Mexico into one regional government as had the European Union united Europe. A real border was never to be implemented because in time we were to be the North American Union complete with open borders of the people within and with an amero dollar to match the euro dollar. To globalists national sovereignty is the enemy. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, that depend on and protect national sovereignty, cannot be allowed to obstruct the move to a world government.
The main reason that the U.S. was not to have an effective southern border prior to the political unification of the three countries was because Mexico was so far behind the other two countries in economic development and it needed time to elevate itself. Mexicans flooding the U.S. for better paying jobs and many sending a portion of their money back to families in Mexico or opting to retire in their homeland with pensions acquired in the U. S., helped in Mexico’s economic elevation.
Some trade agreements also intentionally interlaced with other trade agreements. The three countries in NAFTA also are signatories of the 5,600 paged Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), just ended by President Trump. Had it been implemented it would have governed 40 percent of U.S. imports and exports and 26 percent of the world’s trade. It would have been the law of the land for the United States and 11 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region regardless of what the U.S. Constitution might say.
Its sister trade deal the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), called for by President Barack Obama in his February 12, 2013 State of the Union Address, would have economically merged the European Union and the United States much more closely with respect to market access, specific regulation and broader rules. Secret negotiations on the TTIP are expected to continue through 2020 and remain classified so the extent of this merger is unknown.
Trumps opposition to illegal immigration and his pulling out of the TPP negotiations are the most serious blows to the globalists in 100 years and will never be tolerated by them. They will continue to spew hate for him. His announced objective to renegotiate NAFTA as well and his probable pull out of TTIP too, may make him the most influential president rescuing us from world government.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Dec 19, 2016 | Constitution, Immigration, Liberty Articles
Harold Pease, Ph. D
American cities are in rebellion. Since the election of Donald Trump, mayors have lined up by the dozens and announced that they will not assist the federal government in the deportation of illegals. Universities followed, declaring themselves off-limits to federal law. None of this is protected by the Constitution. But now California is using the Tenth Amendment, the nullification doctrine, to become a sanctuary state and defy federal law as well. Is it constitutional?
Sanctuary cities defying federal law are nothing new. They did it under President Barack Obama with his encouragement. Estimates of illegals with criminal convictions released to the streets during the Obama tenure range as high as 68,000. Probably most hang out in sanctuary cities that seemingly plan on preventing their deportation. More than 600 of these were released back into the public more than twice. On August 19, 2015, 193 with homicide convictions and 426 with sexual assault convictions were released by the Obama Administration. One, 45-year-old Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, with seven felonies and having been deported five times, murdered Kate Steinle, July 5, 2015. More than 340 cities have laws shielding illegal aliens from federal law.
Two constitutional problems exist: as mentioned, the Constitution does not give cities any right to defy the laws of the land emanating from Congress (the only law making part of the federal government), nor should cities or states follow law made solely by the president, as for example executive amnesty. Every mayor has taken a solemn oath “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The existence of sanctuary cities is as clear a constitutional violation as exists.
But a state is exempted from federal law that is not constitutionally based by two parts of the Constitution: Article I, Section 8 and Amendment 10. The first, known as the enumeration clause, lists the areas where Congress can make law. Any extension of this list requires an Amendment to the Constitution as all other power remains with the states. Amendment 10 clarifies this relationship more firmly. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
So states can refuse to obey federal law and should do so to keep the federal government from absorbing the jurisdiction left to them, “powers not delegated” to the federal government. Remember our Founders created a system of dual governance between the states and the federal government with neither being master or slave.
Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton were each especially vocal with respect to states having the authority to “Just Say No!” to federal law not enumerated. Such was used in 1798 in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves, in 1832 in the Nullification Crisis in South Carolina, and more successfully with the northern states, especially Wisconsin, in 1854 over the highly unconstitutional Fugitive Slave Act.
More recently the 10th Amendment, and resulting Doctrine of Nullification, first strongly implied in the Constitution and then more firmly stated in the 10th Amendment, is being used by states to prevent the federal government’s overreach of enumerated powers. Thirty states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form, usually medical, openly defying federal law and on November 8, California, Massachusetts, and Nevada joined Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Colorado completely legalizing marijuana for recreational use as well. Whether my reader views this as good or bad, the fact still remains that without a new amendment to the Constitution this issue remains a state issue. States’ refusal to implement the Real ID Act, passed in 2005, which established new federal standards for state-issued drivers licenses, is a form of nullification as well.
When enough states say no, the feds back away. In 2013, nine State Sheriffs’ Associations put the Executive and Legislative Branches on notice that they support the traditional interpretation of the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights and 336 elected county sheriffs inferred that they would protect their people on this issue—even against federal agents coming into their counties. Barack Obama and the Justice Department backed away.
The use of marijuana, and the ID Act are not within the scope of enumerated powers and thus belong to the states. President Obama’s reinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment rightfully was ignored by the states. Health, education, and marriage, or anything remotely like unto them, can not be found in the Constitution as federal powers and thus, as per Amendment 10, remain state functions only—regardless of what five rogue justices on the Supreme Court may rule. Any other interpretation would lead the federal government to legislate any thing it wished, end federalism (dual government), and in time destroy all the other checks and balances in the Constitution.
Now California is using the doctrine of nullification to defy federal law on immigration, as it rules itself a sanctuary state. The problem is immigration is clearly constitutionally left to the federal government alone. Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 gives the federal government the right, “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” It has and thus states cannot defy it. Moreover, eight of the 18 clauses listed as the powers of Congress deal with national security and border security defines even the existence of a nation. The Constitution puts an end to the issue in Article 6: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; … shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Jan 25, 2016 | Constitution, Globalism, Healthcare, Immigration, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
Liberty Under Fire has examined the candidates for president as to their intention to give first consideration in problem solving to the Constitution. Many of the problems now facing this nation and the expensive, time-consuming lawsuits to bring the Barack Obama administration in line with it, are due to his not following the Constitution. Our current constitutional crisis is more serious than any other concern, including ISIS.
Our readers in Iowa and New Hampshire, who will be expressing themselves very soon in the first two presidential primaries, should know that defending the Constitution must be first priority in this Presidential election. Constitutional integrity will solve our problems very nicely. Another four years without such may leave the Constitution so defiled as to not be recoverable.
To our many Democrat friends, your party has provided much historical strength especially in upholding Amendments 1, 4, 5, and 8 of the Bill of Rights. In the 20th Century your greatest contribution was in extending equality to blacks. Today most blacks support your party in appreciation. But in four Democratic sponsored presidential debates not one of your candidates (Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley) even spoke of our present constitutional crisis. Not one of them gave any indication that it would be considered in problem solving. Indeed, more taxes and more government—even government by decree—was always their remedy.
Unfortunately, the Republican solution to problem solving is only mildly better. They too problem solve with high taxes and unlimited government. They too abandoned the concepts of a republic and federalism years ago. They too pay no attention to the list of appropriate areas of legislation in Article I, Section 8 and Amendments 9 and 10 that gives all power not identified in the Constitution to the states. Republican presidents too, with their executive orders, usurp the powers of Congress as the only lawmaking body. A President Trump’s executive orders would differ from a President Hillary Clinton’s only in that his would be “good ones rather than bad ones,” as Trump explained.
On Second Amendment issues all the Republicans candidates are better than any of the Democratic candidates. Remember, Amendments cannot constitutionally be changed by warping its original meaning or by any law made by Congress or by executive order. If it needs to be changed that can only happen by another amendment and that requires 3/4th of the states to approve as per Article V.
On abortion issues Carly Fiorina has the most constitutional response, it should be returned to the states. There exists no language in the Constitution giving the practice national authority and as such constitutionally falls under the 10th Amendment. Ted Cruz, however, has the most actual experience in court with respect to preserving constitutional integrity on the subject. All others say that they are pro-life but would use national power to enforce that view.
With respect to the management of our currency, constitutionally given only to Congress with no authority for them to hand it off to the banking elite who most benefit by its management, most republican candidates are critical but in favor of the Federal Reserve. Only Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio demand that the books be opened to Congress, Cruz and Rubio cosponsoring Paul’s legislation to do just this.
There exists no constitutional language whatever giving the federal government any say in health issues. As such it is a state issue as per Amendment 10. All Republican presidential candidates say that they oppose Obamacare but what they would do about it as president differs. Least likely to do anything about it is Jeb Bush. Most likely to work to have it totally repealed is Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Trump and Rubio would repeal and replace. Replace means a Republican version of the same thing, which would be just as unconstitutional as that of Obama’s healthcare.
Candidates most likely to reverse Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty order are Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Candidates least likely to do so are Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie. Only Cruz and Trump have the correct constitutional interpretation of the 14th Amendment dealing with immigration.
On the Trans- Pacific Partnership Treaty most Republican Presidential candidates are in favor with Marco Rubio referring to it as being “a pillar of his presidency.”
Trump calls it as a “disaster” and “pathetic.” Rand Paul opposes it because it was done in secret and was unavailable to the people. Only Ted Cruz talks about opposition to it on constitutional grounds.
With respect to 4th Amendment issues of privacy and NSA surveillance on Americans, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz each sponsored legislation in opposition to it or limiting of its practice. Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee think spying on our own citizens without a warrant is unconstitutional. Others support or at least do not voice opposition to the practice.
In these instances, and many more, the presidential candidate presently defending the Constitution, and most likely to use the Constitution in problem solving as president, is clearly Ted Cruz, with Rand Paul a close second. Least likely include Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Marco Rubio.
Jan 7, 2016 | Constitution, Immigration, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
“We cannot wait for Congress to act on this,” so said President Barack Obama Tuesday in his first address to the nation in 2016. In essence he will now make the laws dealing with the 2nd Amendment himself because Congress refused to make law the President wanted. Mostly the executive orders (new laws) expand required background checks and the number of those requiring a sales license to sell guns (which requires tremendous paperwork, expense, and about a year to obtain). This Congress refused to pass three times during the Obama administration, once when the Democrats were in charge. Even gun exchanges between family members come into question. Potentially this means that people who violate the law made by the president alone will go to jail or be otherwise punished as with kings and dictators.
This is reminiscent of a statement made by the White House just two years ago on executive amnesty. “We’re not just going to sit around and wait interminably for Congress. We’ve been waiting a year already.” In this instance, some in Congress had worked on what was called the Dream Act that would extend amnesty and place illegal immigrants on a course toward full citizenship. Lacking popularity, twice it failed to get the majority vote of both Houses of Congress required by the Constitution, thus leaving long-standing existing immigration law unchanged. Obama, failing to get a favorable vote from Congress, openly defied Congress and the Constitution by ordering a like measure to that defeated, implemented anyway. It has since rightly been blocked by the Judicial Branch as having been an overreach by the President, thus unconstitutional.
Executive amnesty was outright contempt for Congress and the Constitution and the President knew it. Twenty-seven times prior to his doing the order he argued that it would be unconstitutional were he to do it. As for example, on March 28, 2011, he said, with respect to the idea of nullifying Congress on the deportation issue. “The notion that I can just suspend deportations just through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed.”
Indeed, by executive order Obama has changed existing law at least 30 times, most notably in the Affordable Care Act, which today is not the bill passed by Congress in 2010. In doing these, and the new parade of executive orders on gun control, the President is replacing Congress as the only federal lawmaker of the land.
There is nothing more clear nor basic in the Constitution than the separation of federal power into three branches, one to legislate, another to execute that law, and a third to adjudicate possible violations of that law when contested—a division of power held “sacred” until the last few decades. The Constitution reads: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives”(Article I, Sec. I).
The Executive branch has NO authority to make law—any law!!!! Nor does it have constitutional authority to alter existing law. Executive Orders are constitutional only when they cite a single, recently passed law of Congress, where that law needs a statement of implementation by the executive branch. Originally they were but interdepartmental directives.
A president can only suggest a need for new law in his State of the Union Address, and either sign or veto a law passed by Congress, which then, if vetoed, must be overridden by a vote of 2/3rds of both houses to become law. That is it.
I warned my readers when Obama blatantly violated the Constitution on executive amnesty that “if not challenged by Congress his alterations would become existing law by practice without the consent of the peoples’ representatives, voiding the role of Congress, and that he, upon finding a weak Congress, would repeat the practice of making law by decree.” He has!! Some have used the word dictatorial to describe the practice. I renew this warning, not just for Obama but also for presidents who follow from either party, as they will use past practice to justify desired practice and the trend to nullify Congress as the only federal lawmaking body will continue. Executive Orders that have the force and effect of law must stop to preserve liberty.
Obama’s present override of Congress on 2nd Amendment issues is an even more blatant abuse of his oath of office, to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” To protect the separation of powers and end Obama’s threat to the Constitution, Congress must publically renounce all his new executive orders and fast track immediately to impeachment. Yes, the Constitution requires that he be retired in twelve months anyway but a bill of impeachment reestablishes the precedent that the people will not tolerate the defilement of the Constitution thus discouraging constitutional rogues of the future. Failing to do so weakens Congress’s sole role as the federal law-making branch of government, the clarity of the 2nd Amendment, and the integrity of the presidential oath of office.
Democrats must see that their failure to insist on a retraction of all law-making executive orders forever weakens the sole power of Congress to make all law and places us on the road of government by decree or edict of one man. We must choose the Constitution over party. The Constitution is there to protect all parties and all citizens from arbitrary and caprices rule as just announced. Please let it work.
Jan 3, 2016 | Constitution, Immigration, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
The December 15, 2015, Republican Presidential Debate featured a stark clash between the only two Hispanics running from either party, both also the sons of immigrants to this country. A successful bid would make either our first Hispanic president. But on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the Bill of Rights they are on opposite ends, one opposing the other supporting.
A question with respect to the extremely controversial, largely on constitutional grounds, NDAA should have been a top news item in the presidential debate for three reasons: first, it had just been approved by both houses of Congress and was then on the President’s desk for his signature, second, a new president (presumably one of the debaters) would inherit the power to detain indefinitely and without trial American citizens he or his military suspected was a terrorist threat, and finally, all this in light of the ISIS terrorist attack in San Bernardino by one of our own. It wasn’t. Amazingly no commentator in any of the debates has asked about the NDAA.
It would not have come up at all had not Senator Marco Rubio accused rival Senator Ted Cruz of having voted against it every year since its inception in 2011 and accurately assumed that Cruz would veto it were he the president. Senator Cruz responded, “I oppose the federal government having the authority to detain U.S. citizens permanently with no due process. I have repeatedly supported an effort to take that out of that bill.” Rubio countered, “If you’re an American citizen and you decide to join up with ISIS, we’re not going to read you your Miranda rights. You’re going to be treated as an enemy combatant, a member of an army attacking this country.” Senator Rand Paul attempted several times to have input in support of the Cruz position but was not allowed.
So why is this an issue? It is the word “suspected.” In the United States you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. And there is also the damage to the Bill of Rights.
In the NDAA is a provision authorizing the military, under presidential authority, to arrest, kidnap, detain without trial, and hold indefinitely, American citizens thought to “represent an enduring security threat to the United States.” Simply stated it defied Habeas Corpus (your constitutional right not to disappear at the hand of government) Article I, Section 9, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (preventing the military from having a law enforcement function in the United States), and essentially gutted large portions of the Bill of Rights especially amendments 4, 5, and 6 with secondary damage to 1, 2 and possibly 8. It is the single most dangerous law passed by Congress in U.S. History. No freedom or constitutional advocate should be supportive of punishment without trial.
Many seem not to understand that a non-specific definition of terrorism, such as that noted above, can easily be turned into a revolving definition of terrorism and used to wipe out either an opposing party or philosophy. Imagine being arrested, kidnapped, and secretly shipped to Guantanamo Bay (or some other undisclosed location) for defending the Constitution. Such is possible under the NDAA. Republican President Richard Nixon used the IRS to persecute his political enemies in the 1970’s, as has Democratic President Barack Obama in the last seven years. Neither political party is without fault on this issue.
Perhaps Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz said it best when he proudly told his constituents: “Today I voted against the National Defense Authorization Act. I am deeply concerned that Congress still has not prohibited President Obama’s ability to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens arrested on American soil without trial or due process. 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.” We agree and that is why the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 is still dangerous, still unconstitutional and still unacceptable in a free country!!
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain pushed NDAA through the Senate in 2011 and Democrat President Barack Obama, promised to veto it, then reneged on the promise and signed it. It largely nullifies the Bill of Rights for those accused. No freedom or constitutional advocate should be supportive of punishment without trial. In the 2016 presidential race only Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, from either major political party, have voiced opposition to it. Presumably all other candidates favor it. Senator Rubio consistently voted for it and is probably the most outspoken 2016 presidential contender, from either major political party, advocating it. As such it is unlikely that, if elected president, he could fulfill the oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
