Jefferson and drones [View all]
Jefferson ordered attacks on pirate ships with US citizens among the crew, based on a Congressional authorization of force (he had requested but not received an explicit declaration of war). This included the famous razing of the USS Philadelphia at anchor (a ship at anchor is a current threat to no one).
He did not receive an explicit declaration of war because the pirates were trans-national non-state actors only ambivalently supported by the Barbary states (sound familiar?). This also led to charges that Jefferson was setting up a permanent US security apparatus in the form of the Navy and Marine Corps. This from a man who shipped the Constitutional Convention because he worried the government would have too many powers, and agonized over whether he could legally buy Louisiana from France.
I don't know where people get the idea that Americans outside of the US have received judicial review before being declared under arms against the US or being declared hostis humani generis (which is the relevant question for terrorism, anyways). Because I can't find an example of that happening -- the decision seems to have been left to the executive since very early, despite Congress's explicit authority over piracy.
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