The Administration explained on November 6 , 2012 , the terms " substantially supported " and " associated forces " in its opening brief before the U.S. Second Court of Appeals in '' Hedges v. Obama '' . With respect to the term " substantially supported " the Obama administration stated : And with respect to the term " associated forces " , the Administration cited the above-mentioned Jeh Johnson 's remarks on February 22 , 2012 : The Administration summarized later in its brief that : NBC News released in February 2014 an undated U.S. Department of Justice White paper entitled " Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force . " In it the Justice Department stated with respect to the term " associated forces " '' Mother Jones '' wrote that the Act " is the first concrete gesture Congress has made towards turning the homeland into the battlefield " , arguing that " codifying indefinite detention on American soil is a very dangerous step " . The magazine has nevertheless contested claims by '' The Guardian '' and the '' New York Times '' that the Act " allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on U.S. soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay " , writing that " they 're simply wrong ... It allows people who think the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks gives the president the authority to detain U.S. citizens without charge or trial to say that , but it also allows people who can read the Constitution of the United States to argue something else " . Legal commentator Joanne Mariner has noted in '' Verdict '' that the scope of existing detention power under the AUMF is " subject to vociferous debate and continuing litigation " . In the years that followed the September 11 attacks , the AUMF was interpreted to allow the indefinite detention of both citizens and non-citizens arrested far from any traditional battlefield , including in the United States
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012