Senate panel looks to stymie indefinite detentions

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indiana Senate committee is advancing a measure supporters hope will make it harder for the federal government to indefinitely detain an American citizen.

The Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of the measure that would bar state and local law enforcement from helping federal agents indefinitely detain Americans.

Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Columbia City says detention language included in a defense spending bill last year clearly deprives residents of due process. He and his supporters fear the federal government will use the language to secretly hold Americans without court appearances.

Banks had also sought to make it a misdemeanor for any federal official to enforce any provision of the defense spending bill, but the panel removed that provision from the bill.