WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the Second Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the President of the United States and the United States Congress as follows:

WHEREAS,  the United States Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012 on December 15, 2011, and the President of the United States signed the Act into law on December 31, 2011; and

WHEREAS,  the Act directs the Armed Forces of the United States to detain any person who is captured in the course of hostilities authorized by the federal Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists and who is determined to be a member of or part of al-Qaeda or an associated force that acts in coordination with or pursuant to the direction of al-Qaeda and to have participated in the course of planning or carrying out an attack against the United States or its coalition partners; and

WHEREAS,  the disagreements and uncertainty in interpretation of the law has raised significant concerns about due process for United States citizens; and

WHEREAS,  the prospect of the indefinite detention of United States citizens violates, without due process of law, basic rights enshrined in the United States Constitution, such as the right to seek a writ of habeas corpus, the right to petition for a redress of grievances, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to counsel; and

WHEREAS,  it is crucial to national security that funding contained in the National Defense Authorization Act for the Department of Defense and members of the military and their dependents remain intact; and

WHEREAS,  the members of this Legislature have taken an oath to uphold the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Maine; now, therefore, be it