Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles deserves another Pulitzer Prize for this superb cartoon. Some people are singing hallelujahs over the Supreme Court’s recent decision that police cannot automatically search people’s cell phones. However, the Supreme Court has done nothing to negate the government’s prerogative to kill people based on secret memos, secret evidence, and utter bunk.

I started ragging on the U.S. government’s assassination policy long ago when Obama was a presidential candidate who pledged to obey the Constitution. A 2011 story I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor (“Assassination nation: Are there any limits on President Obama’s license to kill?”) evoked a torrent of testy online comments:

* “Hopefully there will soon be enough to add James Bovard to the [targeted killing] list.”

* “We need to send Bovard and the ACLU to Iran. You shoot traders and the ACLU are a bunch of traders.”

* “Now if we can only convince [Obama] to use this [assassination] authority on the media, who have done more harm than any single terror target could ever dream of…”

* “James bovard… We would all be better off if bigots like you stopped writing crap.”

* “You guys who are against killing these guys are going to be the death of all of us.”

As the Counterpunch piece noted – “Unfortunately, the primary difference between some assassination advocates and Washington apologists for targeted killing is that the latter use spellcheckers. For both groups, ‘due process’ is an anachronism – if not a terrorist ploy. And for both groups, boundless groveling to the Commander-in-Chief is the new trademark of a good American. Anything less is national suicide.”

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On Twitter @jimbovard www.jimbovard.com