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“It is not just that constitutional protections are indefinitely suspended, but that the state (in its augmented executive function) arrogates to itself the right to suspend the Consitution or to manipulate the geography of the detentions and trials so that constitutional and international rights are effectively suspended. The state arrogates to its functionaries the right to suspend rights which means that if detention is indefinite there is no foreseeable end to this practice of the executive branch (or the Department of Defense) deciding when and where to suspend constitutionally protected rights, that is, to suspend the Constitution and the rule of law, so producing a form of sovereign power in these acts of suspension.” - Judith Butler on indefinite detention, in Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence, p.63

2006: The Military Commissions Act, revoked the right to habeas corpus to detainees at Guantanamo Bay and any foreigner labelled as an ‘enemy combatant’

2011: National Defense Authorization Act, allows the military to indefinitely detain US citizens who suspected of terrorism  (more)

Habeas corpus, or the Great Writ, is the legal procedure that keeps the government from holding you indefinitely without showing cause. When you challenge your detention by filing a habeas corpus petition, the executive branch must explain to a neutral judge its justification for holding you. Habeas corpus prevents the King from simply locking up subjects in secret dungeons and throwing away the key. It’s been a pillar of Western law since the signing of the Magna Carta in England in 1215. (via)

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