An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that whould nullify a provision that critics claims makes the indefinite detention of Americans legal has gone up in flames; it was defeated by a House majority 238-182.

The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.).

The amendment was supported by 163 Democrats and 19 Republicans.

In a Thursday letter to Congress, Amash made the case that the Smith-Amash amendment to the NDAA was the only amendment that guaranteed Americans a charge and a trial.

The move through the House takes away some of the steam gained by the opposition effort after a New York Judge ruled it unconstitutional on Wednesday, as noted by reporter Robert Johnson.

According to a Bloomberg report, Judge Forrest described the statute this way:

“The statute at issue places the public at undue risk of having their speech chilled for the purported protection from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ‘associated forces’ - i.e., ‘foreign terrorist organizations,’” Forrest said in an opinion yesterday.



Disclosure: In the summer of 2010, Alex worked as an intern on the Justin Amash for Congress campaign.