By: Justin Finneston

The news is aflutter with Obama’s recent issue of an executive order that effectively warrants the detainment of enemies of the United States deemed “terrorists” indefinitely. Constitutionally, the executive order is in the gray area. Historically, though, it’s not unprecedented.

Most commentators seem to have forgotten the fact that Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a similar executive order during the Second World War geared towards Japanese-American internment camps called “War Relocation Camps”—which sounds a lot happier than it actually was. FDR’s orders effectively interred over 110,000 Japanese-American citizens into camps up-and-down the West and mid-West.

And then let’s not forget Abraham Lincoln’s executive order during the Civil War to suspend habeas corpus, allowing prisoners of war to be held captive without trial, among other things, which contradicts the 6th and 8th amendments of our Bill of Rights, which, respectively, ensures a speedy and public trial when accused of a crime and no cruel or unusual punishment—being detained indefinitely without a trial seems sufficient enough to claim it’s a cruel punishment, though it is debatable.

During Clinton’s Administration the Antiterrorism and Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) was passed as a response to the Oklahoma City bombing. While not out-and-out violating habeas corpus, AEDPA did significantly reduce the writ of habeas corpus.

Even more recent is the Bush’s Administration’s Patriot Act, and then the Military Commission Act, allowed the government to detain those believed to be a part of a terrorist cell without due process, and could then be held indefinitely in the infamous Guantanamo Bay facility. The Military Commission Act allowed any “alien” to be detained if considered an enemy of the United States, either past or present, without habeas corpus rights.

And this isn’t even the exact amount of times our government has suspended habeas corpus, or limited its rights. These are just executive orders, and some of the habeas corpus constrictions have come from Congress—probably just as many as they have come from the Executive branch. Our Constitution states that our right of habeas corpus is innate in order to maintain a free society, but, and here is where most of the Executive and Congressional suspensions have used, Article 1, Section 9 states that the government cannot infringe upon the writ of habeas corpus “unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” The question is whether or not we as a society currently require a suspension of habeas corpus.

Most scholars will say no, and some laymen will say yes, and the rest of the population will probably not care. But it does factor into a major issue at the core of Obama’s Administration. While he hasn’t acted any differently than any other president in the past, that is precisely the problem. The reasons why many of his questionable legislation come under such scrutiny is not because they are completely unfounded, or even entirely wrong if looked at more objectively, but because he promised certain things (e.g. getting rid of Guantanamo Bay, repealing Patriot Act, etc.) that he hasn’t delivered entirely. But again, not even this is historically unprecedented.

If you’ll recall back to Reagan, during his campaign he stated he would get rid of Social Security, the Department of Education and Energy, and scale back on spending while decreasing taxes. He did one of those things, and it wasn’t particularly hard—he decreased taxes to a historically low rate. Reagan promised, Senior Bush promised (“Read my lips: No new taxes”), Clinton promised…you get the idea. Every single politicians promised something or other going back thousands of years, and only a very small fraction of them delivered. But rather than criticizing Obama instituting new policies infringing upon citizens’ rights, maybe we should treat him just like every other president that did the exact same thing: subtle indifference and lassitude coupled with minor grievances being yelled through a microphone as we eat more Cheetos.