No This is Not the First Time Congress Has Codified Indefinite Detention During War

I've long revered Glenn Greenwald a staunch supporter of civil liberties.  His work on the fallout from the 2001 Patriot Act and its various extensions has been tremendous.  His books How Would a Patriot Act and With Liberty and Justice for some, are incredibly difficult to put down. I read the former all the way through in one day.  It was that good.

Nonetheless, his recent posts about the latest NDAA approval from Congress is startling and very worth the ten minutes it takes to read them (here and here).

In short, the NDAA has a complete disregard for the Constitution and civil liberties.  It's hard to argue with much of what Greenwald writes.  And I won't except for a small discrepancy he keeps repeating.  For example, take this sentence: "First, while the powers this bill enshrines are indeed radical and dangerous, most of them already exist. That’s because first the Bush administration and now the Obama administration have aggressively argued that the original 2001 AUMF already empowers them to imprison people without charges..."

It's true both administrations have argued they have the war power to imprison people without charges or trial.  But what war president hasn't?  President John Adams signed four bills we now know as the Alien and Sedition Acts.  Scores of people were arrested, held without formal charges and even died in custody.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the four bills by any means.  I'm just saying this isn't the first time Congress has codified the president's wartime power of indefinite detention.  Those who oppose NDAA are making it sound like these are vast new powers for the first time codified in law.  That's just not true.

Lincoln didn't even wait on Congress.  He acted on his own and declared his wartime powers suffice to handle enemies he greatly regarded as American citizens.  He locked them up throughout the duration of the Civil War.  Woodrow Wilson, too, had Congress codify his wartime powers, which led to hundreds of civil rights abuses.  FDR acted more like Lincoln with his assumed wartime powers.  He didn't wait for Congress, he single handily wrote an executive order that effectively placed American citizens in concentration camps throughout the duration of WWII.

Like Greenwald states, during the Cold War, Congress codified indefinite detention again regardless of Truman vetoing it.  It was overruled.

Say what you will about the NDAA trampling the Bill of Rights.  It does.  It's a pathetic excuse of wartime power.  But it's not the first time it's been codified by a bipartisan Congress.  Every wartime president has had the exact same powers, not just Bush and Obama.

The problem with the vast powers granted to the president is not indefinite detention.  It's the war authority.  Unlike past wars, the war on terror will not have a formal surrender signing.  It will not have an end date.  That's what scary.  It's more like the Cold War than any of our other wars.  And according to the president's war powers secured all throughout American history, the president's powers are authoritarian.