Congressional Research Service: President Does Not Have Unlimited Power to Detain Americans During Wartime

A new report from the Congressional Research Service disputes the Bush Administration's claim that the President has unlimited authority to detain American citizens in wartime if he deems them to be enemy combatants.
The CRS report reviews the legislative history of the 1950 "Emergency Detention Act," which was repealed in 1971, and finds that it clearly limited the authority of the entire executive branch, and not only the Attorney General, to detain American citizens. To argue otherwise, "one would have to believe that Congress, in 1971, intended to limit imprisonment or detention [only] by civilian authorities [but not by military authorities].
The legislative history does not support that nterpretation...." Most CRS reports are even-handed to a fault and do not normally endorse either side of a disputed issue. So it is noteworthy that the new report deviates from that standard practice and concludes that the Bush Administration is simply wrong. A copy of the report, issued today (though not publicly "released"), was obtained by Secrecy News. See "Detention of U.S. Citizens," by Louis Fisher, Congressional Research Service, April 28, 2005: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22130.pdf