DOJ Lawyers: Drone Targets Receive 'Due Process' But We Won't Say How
"The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, who helped bring the suit on behalf of family members of those killed, said in a joint statement that the essence of the government’s argument was "that it has the authority to kill Americans not only in secret, but also without ever having to justify its actions under the Constitution in any courtroom."
"To claim, as the administration [has now done], that the courts have no role at all to play in assessing whether the government's targeted killings of Americans are lawful – even after the fact – simply cannot be squared with the due process clause," they said.
In the motion to dismiss, Justice Department lawyers made the case that any demands for judicial review are superseded by what the government said are necessary actions in protecting national security. It further argued that the court's desire to explore alternatives to assassination (versus possible capture) was not in its "proper purview".
Not only did the Obama administration push to have the case dismissed, as Politico's Josh Gerstein reports, the government lawyers "also threatened to invoke the State Secrets Privilege if the suit is not dismissed on other grounds."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/16
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