Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Bye bye quaint old rules


Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic guesses how the Obama administration might rewrite the Fifth Amendment, the Constitutional provision usually construed as guaranteeing some kind of legal process before a citizen is killed by the state. Here's the new version:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, or upon being declared a terrorist at a secret meeting. Nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, unless accused of terrorism by the executive branch. In that case neither charges nor evidence nor a trial nor any review by the legislature or the judiciary is needed. Being accused of terrorism, even by anonymous U.S. officials, shall be considered sufficient evidence of guilt.

Apparently the administration has a U.S. citizen in its sites and is leaking that it is preparing its legal rationale for blowing away the guy (and anyone around him) in some other country.

Should we expect a public demonization campaign? Possibly justified, but not the same as a trial. Or do they just figure nobody cares?

1 comment:

Hattie said...

I'm glad you're keeping up on this. I will try to view Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald's interview on Democracy Now.