On Monday, the Supreme Court has rejected the case filed against the Obama administration for about a US law that allows the military to detain individuals believed to have aided the al Qaeda or the Taliban. Reuters said that the US high court had left a July 2013 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals decision intact. Journalists and others have earlier opposed the law as it could lead to their arrests by the US military on suspicion of aiding terrorists.
The news agency said that the provision being challenged is one part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by the US Congress annually to authorize the Defense Department programs. The provision reportedly lets the government to put people in prison indefinitely once they are found to have substantially supported al Qaeda, the Taliban or forces associated with the two groups.
Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and an Icelandic spokeswoman for the Wikileaks website had already argued that the provision violates their rights to free speech as journalists working on overseas conflicts. Moreover, They and others have claimed that the law will subject them to getting locked up due to exercising constitutionally protected rights.
In a resolution favorable to journalists and rights activists, US District Judge Katherine Forrest of New York in September 2012 issued a ruling that prevented the US to invoke the contested provision. However, Reuters said the appeals court said the argument has no standing as they could not provide proof that it has any bearing to detain US citizens. Moreover, the appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs who are not US citizens do not have the standing enough for them to sue as they failed to show a threat that would suffice the argument that the US government indeed would detain them under the contested provision.
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