Posted on 11/20/2010 3:03:39 PM PST by jazusamo
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights have brought suit against the Obama administration for ordering the targeted killing of American-born al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to be holed up in Yemen. These groups argue that the president doesn't have the legal authority to order the assassination of American citizens. That's right, so in order for the kill order to stand, Awlaki should be stripped of his citizenship.
President Obama has exceeded his power in ordering Awlaki's assassination. Americans abroad are protected by constitutional guarantees of due process, at least when faced with U.S. government action. The implications of Mr. Obama having the legal authority to place American citizens abroad on a government hit list are too alarming to contemplate. If the precedent of unilaterally targeting Awlaki without due process stands, then anyone could go on the list.
Awlaki would no longer have constitutional protections if he lost his citizenship. In 1940, Congress passed legislation that established a number of statutory "expatriating acts," which automatically voided American citizenship if undertaken voluntarily. These included taking an oath to a foreign power, serving in the military of a country at war with the United States, or committing treason. The intent of Congress was to make clear that some actions were by their nature fatal to being an American.
Subsequent Supreme Court decisions restricted but did not overturn the law. In Afroyim v. Rusk (1967), the high court determined the 14th Amendment is "most reasonably ...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
You are right, just kill the SOB, then order pardons all around to those who do it.
I loved that when Thompson said it! :-)
We are dangerous Freepers, after all.
... and usually a lot easier to find.
Too many Americans, including some here, engage in conscience ignorance or selective memory and, against all evidence to the contrary,will place ultimate faith in the government to decide when to chuck the bill of rights.
Make it a big smart bomb so it’ll take his freinds with him.
I see Obama administration and the ACLU having been working together to see if they can kill two birds with one stone. Don’t know who the other group is; however I like your post. Strip him and rip him.
freinds = friends
I never agree with the ACLU on anything... except this. Omambi cannot kill/execute an American citizen without proper due process.
My thoughts exactly.
What intent is expressed by the behavior of the One toward America? That is the question.
No problem with this in theory, but big problem depending on what is meant by "the government."
Such action should not be administrative or executive. There should be some sort of judicial process.
If this requires passing a law, let's get to it.
But I really don't want to give any president or gov agency the power to strip Americans of citizenship by their own action.
Declare war on al Quaeda and attack it and its affiliates wherever they're found. If Americans are supporting this organization, then we're at war with them too.
Alternatively, we seemed to have no trouble killing one hell of a lot of Americans during our WBTS. War was never declared. It was (legally or by legal fiction, depending on your point of view), suppression of an insurrection.
Well hasn't this dude joined an insurrection against the USA?
Actually, there is precedent for declaring war on a non-nation: during Napoleon’s Hundred Days, the other European powers declared war on Napoleon, not on France (I recall Talleyrand had something to do with it.)
Hadn’t heard that. Maybe Congress should just declare war individually on this dickhead and then everything’s kosher.
Oh the quandary. American totalitarians living abroad or American totalitarians at home. TOTUS is clueless. The constitution is a minor obstacle to a totalitarian.
A small-minded totalitarian cannot compete with a Total Totalitarian.
Some you can vote out, others require incarceration, still others require elimination. Criminals always have the upper hand.
Jihad continues apace.
It sure seems like it to me and I agree we should be able to declare war on anyone killing American citizens. I also agree it should be a judicial process in stripping an American of citizenship.
What?
you mean 'ordered himself assassinated' ?
Because that is the implication I got from the TITLE of the thread.
Good point!
Fred Thompson for RNC Chairman...
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