It’s a basic principle of U.S. law that a person accused of a crime has the right to face his accusers and defend himself. The Obama administration demonstrated last week how little it cares about due process when it assassinated Anwar al-Awlaki. But it turns out the process is even more sinister than we thought. There’s a secret group of bureaucrats who decide which Americans should be killed. They simply inform the president of their decisions.
Have we really become so callous toward Americans’ civil rights that we turn over decisions about citizens’ executions to anonymous groups of bureaucrats who can’t be held accountable? How can anyone think this is constitutional or legal in any way?
Disgraced former president Richard Nixon infamously declared that, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” Nixon was explaining his actions related to Watergate to journalist David Frost in a 1977 interview. Even though he was forced to resign from office, Nixon still believed he had done nothing wrong, because he believed a president had the power to do pretty much whatever he wanted.