Obama sued for authorizing an assassination on an American citizen

My Comments: I believe Awalki should be put to death, but you can't have the President authorizing assassinations on American citizens. That's blatantly un-American. We have rights, we have due process. Obama himself made a big stink about giving civilian trials, and Miranda rights, to capture Al-Qaeda operatives, but he won't extend those protections to American citizens. I'll stop my point before I get into trouble....

Obama sued over Awlaki slaying order

Original Post: Newstalk 1130

The ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights are suing the government over an executive order to kill Anwar al-Awlaki.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Lawyers for the father of radical al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki called on Washington to outline its legal justification for targeting the cleric for death.

U.S. President Barack Obama in early 2010 sparked controversy when he targeted U.S.-born Awlaki for death. Awlaki was in contact with the alleged triggerman in the November 2009 shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, and the suspected would-be suicide bomber on a U.S. passenger plane Christmas Day and recently said the killing of Americans is permissible for Muslims even without a religious edict.

Nasser al-Awlaki retained the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights to challenge the Obama administration's authority in the order.

The Obama administration argues that the executive branch has the unilateral authority to determine threats, noting targeted killings are a "political question" outside of the reach of the judicial branch.

The Awlaki lawsuit calls on the courts to rule that targeted killings are permissibly only in extreme cases and asks Washington to lay out its legal justification for putting U.S. citizens on government kill lists.

Jameel Jaffer, a deputy legal direct at the ACLU, said it's the government's responsibility to protect its citizens, though the courts have a key role to play in counter-terrorism policies.

"If the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the president does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state," he said in a statement.