I stole Glenn Greenwald’s headline because I don’t see a way to improve it.

A nice tight read from Greenwald. This is big news, that the lawsuit preventing the government from murdering a U.S. citizen on sight is going forward (my emphasis in the last paragraph):

The lawsuit — captioned Al-Aulaqi v. Obama — was filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, and names Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates as defendants. Among other relief, the Complaint asks the court to (a) “declare that the Constitution [along with ‘treaty and customary international law’] prohibits Defendants from carrying out the targeted killing of U.S. citizens, including Plaintiff’s son, except in circumstances in which they present concrete, specific, and imminent threats to life or physical safety, and there are no means other than lethal force that could reasonably be employed to neutralize the threats”; (b) “enjoin Defendants from intentionally killing U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi” unless they demonstrate the applicability of those narrow circumstances; and (c) “order Defendants to disclose the criteria that are used in determining whether the government will carry out the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen” (emphasis added). Just how perverse is the Obama administration’s assassination program is reflected in the rights Awlaki is forced to assert. He alleges — as the Complaint puts it — that the Government is violating his “Fifth Amendment Right Not to be Deprived of Life Without Due Process.” Just re-read that and contemplate that in Barack Obama’s America, that right even needs to be contested.

Click and read; it’s a fast article, and effective. Not to mention critically important — it may be good to be the king; but it’s not good to have one. Our earlier report on this unbelievable civil liberties case is here.

Who are these people, that you have to sue them not to get shot on sight?

GP