Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Obama Inauguration 2013: 7 Ways in Which the President Continues to Break His Presidential Oath
1) Indefinite Detention of American Citizens without Trial
In 2012, the president passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows him to put any American citizen behind bars indefinitely. Furthermore, the president can do this without trial and without notifying the prisoner (or their family) of their charge.
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2) Guantánamo Bay
Aside from violating many human rights, holding prisoners at Guantánamo Bay detention camp is undoubtedly unconstitutional, again violating the Sixth Amendment. First, the Sixth Amendment recognizes the right to a “speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury,” but Guantanamo prisoners are oftentimes given trials long after their arrest and without an impartial jury.
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3) Warrantless Search and Seizure
The Fourth Amendment states, that “The right of the people … against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause … particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”
But in 2008, Obama signed an extension of warrantless wiretapping — via the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Then, in 2012, Obama signed an amendment to this bill that allows the government to intercept e-mails and other communications – again without a warrant.
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4) Domestic Drone Surveillance
The president has overseen the beginning of a massive increase of Federal Aviation Administration power. In fact, the FAA estimates that there will be as many as 30,000 drones flying over the U.S. by 2020.
This may seem harmless enough, but this too violates the Fourth Amendment. These drones are allowed to film anything – they do not need a warrant to film and they do not need to film “particular” places or persons as per the Fourth Amendment so long as they have “reasonable suspicion” that a crime is being committed.
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5) Military Action in Libya
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 allows the President to send U.S. armed forces into action without authorization of Congress .This effectively changes Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution which requires Congressional approval for any military action. Under the War Powers Resolution, the President may only send these forces into action for sixty days (with a further 30 day withdrawal period) without an authorization from Congress or a declaration of war.
But President Obama ordered engagement with Libyan forces for over sixty days without Congressional approval.
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6) Ordered Death of a U.S. Citizen without Judicial Process
In 2011, a U.S. citizen who was never charged with a crime was killed by a U.S. air strike in Yemen, far from an armed conflict zone, as was ordered by the president. This clearly violates the Sixth Amendment as this U.S. citizen was not allowed a trial nor was he charged with any crime. But he was killed.
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7) Gun Control
Many people will disagree with me on this point, but here is why gun control is unconstitutional: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Note, the word “infringed” does not mean, “eliminated.”
The President recently proposed a series of measures that infringe upon our right to bear arms via-background checks and even preventing the purchase of certain weapons and ammunition rounds.
The Second Amendment does not allow our government to do anything that will prevent a person from buying a weapon – including background checks or outlawing automatic weapons. These are certainly Second Amendment infringements.
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Full article: http://www.policymic … is-presidential-oath
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