Say It Ain't So Already

The President as Judge, Jury and Executioner?

January 27, 2010 at 11:34 AM Leave a comment

Should the president be permitted to order the assassination of a U.S. citizen, without that person being charged and afforded the opportunity to defend himself in court?  President Obama say yes:

Just think about this for a minute.  Barack Obama, like George Bush before him, has claimed the authority to order American citizens murdered based solely on the unverified, uncharged, unchecked claim that they are associated with Terrorism and pose “a continuing and imminent threat to U.S. persons and interests.”  They’re entitled to no charges, no trial, no ability to contest the accusations.  Amazingly, the Bush administration’s policy of merely imprisoning foreign nationals (along with a couple of American citizens) without charges — based solely on the President’s claim that they were Terrorists — produced intense controversy for years.  That, one will recall, was a grave assault on the Constitution.  Shouldn’t Obama’s policy of ordering American citizens assassinated without any due process or checks of any kind — not imprisoned, but killed — produce at least as much controversy?

And bear this in mind:

Numerous Guantanamo detainees accused by the U.S. Government of being Terrorists have turned out to be completely innocent, and the vast majority of federal judges who provided habeas review to detainees have found an almost complete lack of evidence to justify the accusations against them, and thus ordered them released.

One would think that Obama, a constitutional lawyer, would be keenly aware of how unconstitutional this practice is and be repulsed by it.

Entry filed under: President Barack H. Obama and Co., Terror, We the People. Tags: .