[qqtt]

This is not really true though. Congress is responsible for granting authority to the President regarding valid military targets. This is why drone strikes are only legal against targets recognized by Congress as security threats. It cannot realistically happen for the President to start targeting individuals outside of Congressional authority.

For your hypothetical situation to arise, Congress would have to declare members of Congress themselves as valid military targets.

[ceejayoz]

> For your hypothetical situation to arise, Congress would have to declare members of Congress themselves as valid military targets.

Or just add them to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposition_Matrix.

"As reported previously, United States citizens may be listed as targets for killing in the database. Suspects are not formally charged of any crime nor offered a trial in their defense. Obama administration lawyers have asserted that U.S. citizens alleged to be members of Al Qaeda and said to pose an "imminent threat of violent attack" against the United States may be killed without judicial process. The legal arguments of U.S. officials for this policy were leaked to NBC News in February 2013, in the form of briefing papers summarizing legal memos from October 2011."

[qqtt]

A relevant decision by a Federal judge regarding the legality of the disposition matrix, concerning specifically US citizens abroad:

https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2012cv1...

It's an interesting read, but part of the argument was that there were Congressional checks and balances in place for security threat review and congress authorized force against the group in question which essentially gave the executive branch authority to add the specific targets in question.

The legality of the disposition matrix at large can still be tested and re-tested depending on the specific actions of the executive branch.

[HaZeust]

>"The legality of the disposition matrix at large can still be tested and re-tested depending on the specific actions of the executive branch."

Ha! So far it's had a pretty good history, and 4 American citizens have been killed from it.

- Anwar al-Awlaki - Abdulrahman al-Awlaki - Samir Khan - Jude Kenan Mohammad

Their due process, as enumerated in the constitution was conclusively violated; and only one (Anwar) was targeted due to involvement in Al-Qaeda.

[qqtt]

I encourage you to read the linked decision I referenced which references this exact case:

https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2012cv1...

The judge ruled there was no violation of their constitutional rights, explicitly because Congress was involved in authorizing military action against the wider threat and specifically in this case Congress was in the approval process for authorizing individual targets.

There was no violation of checks and balances here. That is not to say other uses of the so-called "disposition matrix" might be challenged in the future, but at least in the cases of these individuals, the courts have ruled that no rights were violated.

[HaZeust]

I've read the source material; and it's why I believe the ruling was wrong, and what congress vested in itself inappropriate powers.