I take Howard’s various points, but the question seems to me not to be one of Hamdi or someone like that, but of an American being put on a “hitlist” based on what evidence? On evidence like the stuff that got us into Iraq? If that American is taking up arms against America with our enemies in war of course we can kill him/her if he/she does not surrender and all the rest of it or capture him/her. Reid v Covert states clearly (I am paraphrasing here) that the Government can not do abroad to a US citizen something it cannot do in the United States. I think my thing is the question of legitimate and illegitimate use of power. I have agreed with Reagan Republicans on a number of things as well as with Cindy Sheehan on other things. I do not know if I am left or right at this stage of my life so please do not put me in a box. law)” In Hamdi, the Supreme Court allows the US to initially designate a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant without a hearing (and this is now a requirement of U.S. citizens as enemy combatants is almost always illegal” then then they hold that position in contradiction to the current Supreme Court decisions on the question. If “it is an article of faith of many critics of the Bush policies that the detention of U.S. While Haupt was tried for violations of the law of war, nothing in Quirin suggests that his citizenship would have precluded his mere detention for the duration of the relevant hostilities. We held that “itizens who associate themselves with the military arm of the enemy government, and with its aid, guidance and direction enter this country bent on hostile acts, are enemy belligerents within the meaning of … the law of war.” Id., at 37-38. In Quirin, one of the detainees, Haupt, alleged that he was a naturalized United States citizen. There is no bar to this Nation’s holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant. And what better place to launch this defense do so than here at the Opinio Juris? practice before the world community and in NGO circles. As Stuart Taylor suggests, now might be a good time for Harold Koh to earn his keep over at the State Department and lead a robust legal defense of U.S. is going to pursue this policy, it should openly defend its legality. Indeed, there seems a more than plausible argument that certain kinds of assassinations, as currently executed by the Predator drones, could indeed constitute a violation of the law of war. But even under international law, as readers of Ken Anderson’s posts here and at Volokh know, it is still not all that clear. Under international law, the main question is whether there is legal authority to kill or assassinate anyone, much less one’s own nationals. Am I missing something?Īs some of the commenters have pointed out, the nationality of the victim is not that important from the perspective of international law. ![]() can at the same time deliberately assassinate that same U.S. law), then I can’t quite see how the U.S. But if one believes all of these things, then one cannot possibly believe that deliberately assassinating U.S. is bound by constitutional requirements even when acting abroad in a war zone, and especially when it is acting against U.S. citizens as enemy combatants is almost always illegal, that the U.S. It is an article of faith of many critics of the Bush policies that the detention of U.S. ![]() Or have they joined the “Dark Side” where such bloggers famously accused Dick Cheney and John Yoo of residing? Here’s why these assassinations/killings pose such a real legal problem, especially under their previously stated views of how U.S. (One searches in vain on Balkinization for the outrage, for instance). From a legal perspective, the relative lack of outrage among the lefty-blogs/Obama supporters really does open the door to charges of hypocrisy. ![]() Most lefty-blogs seem unconcerned about this policy, with the notable exception of Glenn Greenawald. citizens abroad (and its admission to having already done so). The NY Times Opinionator has a nice roundup of lefty-blog reaction to the Obama Administration’s claim of the legal authority to kill and assassinate U.S.
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