Here’s the implication of Rand Paul’s speech on Wednesday: Barack Obama orders Anwar al-Awlaki killed, while Rand Paul would have sent the late al-Qaeda operative a subpoena and transformed him into a human shield for his fellow jihadists.

That is why only the president will profit more than radical Islam from Wednesday’s reprise of Senator Paul’s Filibuster Theatre. Obama’s maladministration has intensified the terrorist threat, but Paul’s behavior has him looking like the comparative adult in the room. . . .

Does anyone really believe an American in Yemen has the same due-process rights as an American in Peoria?

Moreover, there is a gaping hole in Paul’s contention that American citizens are deprived of due process if lethal force is used against them based on the commander-in-chief’s determination that they have joined enemy forces — a flaw I have pointed out before but for which Paul evidently has no answer.

Contrary to what the senator suggests, due process has never been thought to equal an entitlement to a full-blown criminal trial in every situation — certainly not by the Framers, and not by the Supreme Court. Due process is merely the process that is due under the circumstances. Here, we are operating under a congressional authorization for the use of military force overwhelmingly enacted days after the 9/11 attacks and reaffirmed several times since. In the AUMF, lawmakers clearly left to the president’s judgment the determination of who fits the category of enemy against whom force is authorized.