He said the legal right to kill U.S. citizens overseas without benefit of a trial was based in Congress’ authorization to use all necessary and appropriate force against the perpetrators of 9/11 or those who helped them and the president’s power “to protect the nation from any imminent threat of violent attack.”
That authority is “not limited to the battlefields in Afghanistan,” Holder said, adding that “We are at war with a stateless enemy, prone to shifting operations from country to country.”
via Chicago Tribune.
This is just about the craziest thing I have read in weeks.
Never before has a presidential administration been so completely inconsiderate of the Constitution. A United States Citizen’s rights do not simply vanish because they leave the country. In fact, our courts have held that you are still subject to U.S. laws even when out of the country. When the criminal laws apply so do the protective laws.
The Constitution provides:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
I don’t care what Congress passes; if you want to change the Constitution then you have amend it. There’s a procedure for that.
Until that procedure is followed, the 6th Amendment still applies.
Obama and Holder and just plain wrong, very very wrong on this issue.