Last night, the Senate voted 99 to 1 for a compromise on the nettlesome terror detention provision in the national defense authorization bill. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) proposed a second amendment explicitly stating what supporters of the McCain-Levin language claimed to be true: that there was nothing in the bill that would change existing law for the detention of U.S. citizens and legal residents arrested in the United States.
The concern was that by giving so much leeway to the military to hold detainees unti the “end of hostilities” in a war as open-ended as the war on terror could lead to the indefinite detention of American citizens in violation of the Constitution. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) was the sole dissenting vote against the compromise. He had voted for the original sweeping detention powers. It is not clear whether the Obama administration will veto.
