Manassas Park Delegate Unhappy About How Bill Was Handled

said he is "disturbed" by how Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's office handled a bill that would prevent state agencies from assisting the U.S. armed forces in illegally de­taining U.S. citizens when that detention would violate Virginia law, the News & Messenger reported this week.

Marshall, who also represents parts of Manassas, introduced House Bill 1160 which he says prevents the state's officials from detaining U.S. citizens for an indefinite amount of time without being formerly charged with a crime and without legal council or a court hearing.

The U.S. Constitution provides for the suspension of habeus corpus—the detention of a person without sufficient evidence—if an invasion should occur, but the nation's lawmakers didn't refer to that provision when they passed the National Defense Authorization Act.

Marshall also said the governor's office initially opposed the original version of the bill, but never said anything about it to him or to Sen. J. Chapman Peterson, D-34, who drafted an amendment of the bill, according to the News & Messenger.

Instead, McDonnell spoke with Del.Tim Hugo of Centreville about it, according to Marshall. 

"I am disturbed by the secre­tive, backdoor way in which my House Bill 1160 is being ‘han­dled’ by the governor’s office,” the News & Messenger reports Marshall wrote in a recent news release.

Marshall's bill passed the house and senate, but not before the house rejected  Petersen's amendment.  The house sent the bill to committee which Marshall said was an attempt to kill it. The bill passed after the amendment was removed.

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