NDAA

The National Defense Authorization Act, colloquially referred to as the NDAA, is a defense spending bill passed yearly by the United States Congress and signed into law by the President of the United States. This is a typical "must pass" bill - it is vital to maintain the armed forces and though it feeds the military-industrial complex, it also provides for the mundane needs of any standing army.

Unfortunately, the NDAA for 2012 contained many questionable measures that have nothing to do with defense spending. The NDAA for 2013 provided more of the same, as has the NDAA for 2014.

The world is a battlefield
Other than making Guantanamo Bay and other detention centers harder to close, the most troubling aspect of the NDAA is Section 1021, the provision allowing for indefinite detention, insisting it can be used by the US anytime, anywhere, on anyone. Controversy arrived from whether this was something new or a mainstreaming of a policy that was unwritten in previous wars (i.e. detaining enemies of the state and supporters of enemies of the state).

Section 1021
Below is the provision that has generated the most controversy:

Legal challenges
Thankfully, these laws have not gone unquestioned. Opposition to these measures come from the usual quarters, such as the ACLU, but also from "Tenthers" i.e., the people who slept through the Bush years and only realized liberty was under attack during the Obama administration.

There have been some legal challenges to Section 1021:
 * In May 2012, Federal Judge Katherine B. Forrest issued an injunction against Section 1021 of the NDAA for 2012 on the grounds the provision was too vague and posed a threat to Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment.
 * As of July, 2013, Section 1021 remains intact.
 * Judge Forrest's ruling was unanimously vacated by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on the grounds that nobody has standing to challenge Section 1021 until they've been detained. How someone being detained incommunicado and without access to counsel is supposed to file a legal challenge is unclear.

Climate change denialism
The McKinley amendment to the NDAA for 2015 is meant to enshrine climate change denialism and Agenda 21 paranoia into Department of Defense policy.

It remains to be seen if NDAA 2015 will pass with this amendment.