The Power to Assassinate American Citizens

Today, via the Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima, we get more confirmation that the Obama administration believes it has the power to unilaterally order the assassination of Americans who it suspects are terrorists:

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill U.S. citizens abroad who are involved in terrorist activities if they are "taking action that threatens Americans."

AlthoughBlair emphasized that it requires "special permission" before an American citizen can be placed on the assassination list, consider from whom that "permission" is obtained:the President, or someone else under his authority within the Executive Branch. There are no outside checks or limits at all on how these "factors"are weighed. In last week's post, Iwrote about all the reasons why it's so dangerous—as well as both legally and Consitutionally dubious—to allow the President to kill American citizens not on an active battlefield during combat, but while they are sleeping, sitting with their families in their home, walking on the street, etc. That's basically giving the President the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial. Who could possibly support that?
It would be perverse in the extreme, but wouldn't it be preferable to at least require thePresident to demonstrate to a court that probable cause exists to warrant the assassination of an American citizen before thePresident should be allowed to order it? That would basically mean that courts would issue "assassination warrants"or "murder warrants"—a repugnant idea given that they're tantamount to imposing the death sentence without a trial—but isn't that minimal safeguard preferable to allowing the President unchecked authority to do it on his own, the very power he has now claimed for himself? And if the Fifth Amendment's explicit guarantee—that one shall not be deprived of life without due process—does not prohibit the U.S. Government from assassinating you without any process, what exactly does it prohibit?