On Tuesday afternoon, February 5th, the South Carolina senate Judiciary Committee declined to send to the full senate a bill, S.92, to nullify a portion of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act authorizing the president to use the military to capture and indefinitely detain any citizen he deemed to be a terrorist.  The bill was originally sponsored by Senator Tom Davis, of Beaufort County.

Half of the Republicans and all of the Democrats on the committee voted to “hold the bill over.” While not the same as a NO vote, killing the bill, it can effectively act as vote against the bill – preventing it from receiving a full floor vote in the Senate.

A bill held over can still come up for consideration, whereas a NO vote ends any consideration on the bill. That means S.92 will come up for another vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, likely within the next week.

If you support due process and oppose the power to “indefinitely detain” in South Carolina, you can help get this bill moving forward. Please follow the action steps below right now.

ACTION ITEMS

1. Contact Senators who voted to stall the bill. Strongly, but respectfully, demand that they allow the full Senate to debate and vote on the bill – and pass S.92 out of committee. (contact info below)

2. Contact those Senators who voted YES on S.92. Thank them and encourage them to continue their stand. (contact info below)

3. Share this information widely and encourage others to do the same.

4. Repeat the process daily or every other daily until S.92 gets a YES vote.

CONTACT INFO

Below are lists of which senators voted for and against moving the bill forward.  Those with an asterisk* are Republicans.

Here is the list of senators who voted to stall the bill.  Click on the name to get contact information for those that voted against the bill:
Thurmond, Paul* , Young, Tom, Jr.*, Rankin, Luke A.*, Hutto, C. Bradley, Malloy, Gerald, Sheheen, Vincent A., Coleman, Creighton B., Massey, A. Shane*, Nicholson, Floyd, Scott, John L., Jr., Gregory, Chauncey K.*, Allen, Karl B., Bennett, Sean*, Hembree, Greg*, Johnson, Kevin L., McElveen, J. Thomas, III

Call, write, or email those above, and remind them of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution. 

Those below voted to send the bill to the senate floor for a vote.

Martin, Larry A., Chairman*,
Campsen, George E. “Chip”, III*
Bright, Lee*
Martin, Shane R.*
Corbin, Thomas D. “Tom”*
Shealy, Katrina Frye*
Turner, Ross*

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The 10th Amendment to the Constitution is the last word of the Bill of Rights.

We hear a lot about the 1st and 2nd Amendments, but the 10th is just as valid, despite being ignored by the feds.  State legislatures are the last line of defense against federal overreach. While the three federal branches have checks and balances against of branch encroaching on the powers of another federal branch, none of them protect encroachment on normal citizens’ rights.

Indefinite Detention is illegal.

President Bush was roundly criticized for a similar policy against foreign enemies, captured on an active battlefield.

President Obama has taken it even a step further, without a peep from the national news media. By simply deeming an individual dangerous, he may have the military capture and detain him, or her, without any of our rights protected by the 4th, 5th, or 6th Amendments to the US Constitution. While most of us may think this NDAA authorization to be harmless to US citizens living in South Carolina, it wasn’t long ago that we thought we thought a US citizen living abroad, even a treasonous one, had the same protections.  Now they kill them, by virtue of being on President Obama’s ‘Kill List.’

The South Carolina Senate bill, the NDAA Nullification Act of 2013, would apply 10th Amendment protections against federal overreach, by nullifying the illegal portions of the law.  Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to detain US citizens simply on the orders of the president.  In fact, it violates laws in effect since the Civil War, not to mention the explicit protection against this very policy that are in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments.

Scott Martin

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