Indefinite detention provisions of NDAA struck down in court, Obama to appeal

Judge Katherine Forrest made the ruling permanent on Wednesday that the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA was unconstitutional. The government argued that it is a normal provision in the law of war, while Judge Forester was of the opinion that the law of war has no place in domestic policy.

She very candidly strikes down all of the government's defense points, sometimes to the point of insult. "That frankly makes no sense, particularly in light of the Government’s inability at the March and August hearings to define certain terms in--or the scope of--§ 1021(b)(2)," she writes in response to a government claim that no future administration would be able to interpret it any differently.

Despite petitions starting immediately to ask Obama not to appeal the decision, by Thursday the appeal had been filed. If he doesn't want that power, as he has claimed, then why is the Obama administration fighting so hard to hold onto it?

The plaintiffs are a group of writers, journalists, and activists including Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, Pentagon papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and left-wing scholar Noam Chomsky.