- Jun 12, 2010
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I can understand where these thoughts are coming from. It is possible someone without the integrity we would hope our president would have could be making thise decision.
Perhaps the Patriot Act could be usefuil in adding language that would insure that it would be more than one person to declare an American citizen a great threat to our nation that his death, if found should be immediate. The Secretary of Defense, Secret Service, CIA may qualify, but should be three people involved.
From what I understand Obama authorized this....which means that the intelligence and military requested it. As CIC, the president has this power. You don't water down the president's power simply because you don't like him.
It has nothing to do with liking or not liking him..I voted for him and he is still very wrong. So you think the president has the right to order the assasination of citizens? Interesting. Simply because he is the CIC does not give him a license to kill.
For the comment about bin Laden being in bed...Bin Laden was not ordered assasinated he was ordered captured. They killed him because he was armed. Also, Bin Laden is NOT a US citizen which makes these two situations very different.
Plus in 2003 th superme court ruled that even though a U.S. citizen was deemed an enemy combatant they still was protected by the fifth amendment and due process.
Libiaty you have knowledge of the judical system you know that information is worthless unless it's submitted in a court of law, it's hearsay tapes can be altered to make it look and sound different then what was originally said, only an expert swron under oath in front of a judge can determin that.
Come on. Don't get silly. Outside of the judicial system, information is gathered and USED all the damn time. Information is not only quite wholly useful even when never submitted to the judicial system, but that is the norm for society. Submission of information TO the judicial system is outside the norm.
This has almost been ALWAYS true for military intel. If our spy in the sky cameras see a facility under construction, or an amassing array of tanks or rocket launchers, they NEVER go to Court for "mother may I?" permission to use that intel. They ACT on it without ever even contemplating going to Court. That is as it should be.
You persist in misusing the term "hearsay." For use in Court (like a criminal proceeding) it is OFTEN true (but not always true) that statements made outside of Court cannot b e offered into evidence at trial for the truth of the matter being asserted. But if, outside of Court, a defendant happens to have said, "Yeah, I killed her. I'm GLAD I killed her. Give me a chance and I'll kill her fucking DOG, too. And I'll shoot that bitch right between the eyes just like I killed the other bitch!" then it CAN be introduced into evidence against the accused. The objection "HEARSAY" would be laughed out of Court.
And you know what else? It could serve as a basis for a perfectly valid (rock solid) conviction, too.
IF unsworn out of court statements CAN sometimes be validly used as evidence IN a criminal trial, then what makes you think that intel can't be used outside of Court for its military purposes?
And, by the way, you're wrong anyway. When the asshole made tapes, playing those tapes is not "hearsay." It's solid evidence.
Very well you leave me with no other way but to leave you with this
HAMDI v. RUMSFELD
Question
Did the government violate Hamdi's Fifth Amendment right to Due Process by holding him indefinitely, without access to an attorney, based solely on an Executive Branch declaration that he was an "enemy combatant" who fought against the United States? Does the separation of powers doctrine require federal courts to defer to Executive Branch determinations that an American citizen is an "enemy combatant"?
Conclusion
Decision: 6 votes for Hamdi, 3 vote(s) against
Legal provision: Due Process
Yes and no. In an opinion backed by a four-justice plurality and partly joined by two additional justices, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that although Congress authorized Hamdi's detention, Fifth Amendment due process guarantees give a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant the right to contest that detention before a neutral decisionmaker. The plurality rejected the government's argument that the separation-of-powers prevents the judiciary from hearing Hamdi's challenge. Justice David H. Souter, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, concurred with the plurality that Hamdi had the right to challenge in court his status as an enemy combatant. Souter and Ginsburg, however, disagreed with the plurality's view that Congress authorized Hamdi's detention. Justice Antonin Scalia issued a dissent joined by Justice John Paul Stevens. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented separately.
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld | The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law