Disappeared News

Expressing commitment to the constitution of the united states.

     WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States and the Hawaii State Constitution are the basis of our representative democracy, and both documents declare that no person will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law; and

     WHEREAS, these founding documents reflect the essential nature of presumed innocence, the right to a speedy public trial before an impartial jury, other elements of effective due process, and a commitment that no person will be exposed to cruel and unusual punishment; and

     WHEREAS, the language of sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on its face permits indefinite military detention without public trial of any person, including United States citizens on United States soil; and

     WHEREAS, the NDAA could authorize the indefinite military detention of activists, journalists, lawyers, and other Americans for no reason other than exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, and association, thus chilling speech and depriving a person of the person's liberty; and

     WHEREAS, the indefinite military detention of any person without trial violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States and Article III of the Constitution of the United States; and

     WHEREAS, the NDAA threatens to eliminate the promise of presumed innocence and the right to a fair trial; and

     WHEREAS, the NDAA's detention provisions could allow the recurrence of torture in military detention in violation of the Eighth Amendment; and

     WHEREAS, the detention provisions could force United States military service members to serve as domestic jailers, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, an inappropriate role for which they are not trained; and

     WHEREAS, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, and many of our nation's generals, admirals, and service persons have opposed the NDAA's detention provisions; and

     WHEREAS, the State is committed to avoiding a repetition of the tragedies and mistakes of history, including the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II; and

     WHEREAS, the families of Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi, Japanese Americans incarcerated in World War II, filed an amicus brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Hedges v. Obama, a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the NDAA's detention provisions, arguing that, under the pretense of national security, the NDAA essentially repeats the decisions in the discredited World War II legal cases of Korematsu, Yasui, and Hirabayashi, and allows the government to imprison people without any due process rights for an indefinite time; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature expresses its commitment to the rights and liberties enshrined within the Constitution of the United States, including the Fifth Amendment right to due process, the Sixth Amendment right to trial, and the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that public agencies of the State and the counties are requested to decline requests by federal agencies acting under detention powers granted by the NDAA or any authorization of force that could infringe upon constitutional freedom of speech, religion, assembly or privacy or rights to counsel; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that federal and state law enforcement officials acting in Hawaii are requested to work in accordance with local law and in cooperation with the county police, by allowing any detainees among Hawaii's residents or visitors access to a trial, counsel, and due process, as provided by Article III of the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and Article I of the Hawaii State Constitution; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members of Hawaii's Congressional delegation are requested to monitor the implementation of the NDAA and actively work for the repeal of the NDAA's detentions provisions, to restore fundamental rights and liberties embodied in the Hawaii State Constitution and the Constitution of the United States; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to Hawaii's congressional delegation, the chairs of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the United States House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the United States Attorney General, and the President of the United States.