The Constitution gives Congress the right to "To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations".
As one poster on the other thread commented, "Do people really think this passage gives Congress power to punish offenses against a work by a Swiss philosopher?"
The Constitution gives Congress the right to “To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas’
and offenses against the law of nations”.
Punish piracies and felonies on the high seas is a different issue.
The Constitution gives Congress the right to define and punish offenses against the Law of Nations.
“The Peterhoff, 5 Wall. 28, 57: “In cases such as that now in judgment, we administer the public law of nations, and are not at liberty to inquire what is for the particular advantage or disadvantage of our own or another country.”
Lauritzen v. Larsen, 345 US 571 - Supreme Court 1953
“Congress and the President, like the courts, possess no power not derived from the Constitution.”
To define and punish Offences against the Law of Nations,” Art. I, § 8, cl. 10.
The Constitution confers on the President the “executive Power,” Art. II, § 1, cl. 1, and imposes on him the duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Art. II, § 3.
The Constitution thus invests the President, as Commander in Chief, with the power to wage war which Congress has declared, and to carry into effect all laws passed by Congress for the conduct of war and for the government and regulation of the Armed Forces, and all laws defining and punishing offenses against the Law of Nations.
The USC stated “punishing offenses against the Law of Nations”.. it did not say this was a piracy offense.
ex parte Quirin, 317 US 1 - Supreme Court 1942
In enacting the legislation, Congress relied specifically on its powers to prescribe the jurisdiction of federal courts, Art. I, § 8, cl. 9; to define offenses against the “Law of Nations,”
Verlinden BV v. Central Bank of Nigeria, 461 US 480 - Supreme Court 1983
Nothing mentioned about an “obscure Swiss guy” or piracy.