On Thursday, Senators Scott Brown and Joe Lieberman introduced the Terrorist Expatriation Bill, which would strip the citizenship of any American, naturalized or native-born, found to have supported or joined a terrorist group. While the ruling could be appealed in court, the designation itself wouldn’t require any sort of hearing or that the accused be convicted of a crime. The person’s citizenship would simply be removed on the say-so of the State Department.
It’s understandable, after the recent Times Square incident involving a naturalized Pakistani, that Brown and Lieberman would seek to beef up anti-terrorism laws. But this bill is a misguided, opportunistic attempt to do so — and one that represents the most damaging, retrograde anti-terror legal ideas.
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It may be an effective campaign slogan to proclaim that terrorists should have no rights, but it leads to a deeply problematic set of policies. American citizens have legal rights to protect them against false government accusations; bills like the one that Lieberman and Brown are pushing effectively make people guilty until proven innocent. It’s a travesty of justice that’s offensive to basic American liberties.
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What a great idea… What could possibly go wrong?
I’m sure “Terrorist Group” will be a well defined term and not at all a loose definition that can get slapped on anything.It’s not like they’ve tried to have people that criticize the government be declared terrorists.
/sarcasm off
In a perfect world this sounds great.
If someone is willing to preform a “terrorist” crime then they will find a way to get back in the country, American citizen or not.
Plus from what I can tell our government and media is a little quick to call things act of terrorism or call people terrorist.
I think anyone who votes “yes” on this poll is attacking our very constitution itself and is thus a terrorist…and should therefore have their citizenship revoked.
We should start prosecuting the real terrorists: fear mongering assholes who suggest eliminating miranda and stripping citizens of rights without so much as a trial.
The question is a frightening one. Any citizen accused of terrorism should be tried for treason under US laws applicable to citizens. Under the Constitution you are still considered innocent until proven guilty.
No, they should be jailed or executed. Let there be no doubt about our nation’s right to do so.
A bill calling for government intrusion into citizens’ lives that was created by politicians who are against government intrusion into citizens’ lives. I’m sure they have a good rationalization for why they can ignore this (obvious irony) but still apply the philosophy to others.
I’m with Mojo on this one…
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve…..
This time it is a domestic enemy. They all work in white buildings in Washington DC. Deport their asses or…
NO.
First let’s eliminate all the dual citizenship that usually starts US-Israeli and usually ends US-Israeli …. and only THEN should we worry about secondary problems that result in a conflict of interest … although usually started by the first.
Maybe after a legitimate trial, but the death penalty should not be an option. The real terrorists, actually want to die for the cause so executing them would make them happy. Make the convicted terrorists rot in jail somewhere and make the foreign government who allowed the terrorist group to train him/her pay for him.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
And, LIEberman is a tool!
Well if we stripped citizens for traitorous activities, then there would be a lot of tea baggers looking for a new country to call home.
Isn’t LIEberman the senator from the terrorist state Israel? How about stripping him of his U.S. citizenship?
What country will you be a citizen of if stripped of citizenship? I believe they might deport you there. I guess I would pick a country where they speak only English, allow citizens to carry a gun, is known for its freedom, has great football and baseball teams, and has low taxes. Anything else is unacceptable. Anyone know what the name of that country is?
No.
will we then deport them to a country that can release them if they want to?
terrorist acts are a crime. we have all the laws against crime that we need. we don’t need to violate the constitution or eliminate those rules that protect the innocent. we don’t need to torture before reading miranda. protecting confidential sources is already a part of the legal system.
McVey and the shoe bomber were brought to justice without special rules. let the cops do their job as they have been trained to do under our laws that have taken 200+ years to put into place. anything less and Bin Laden has won.
So much for “inalienable rights”..
There are laws in place that handle these kinds of questions: felonies strip citizens of their rights to vote, bear arms, etc., and treason is punishable by death.
Let’s not forget the fact that laws do not prevent, they punish.
This is nothing more than posturing by a senator that no party seems to want.
The police should be stripped of their citizenship for being part of a terrorist organization. And the priests of course for terrorizing little boys behinds.
If they are from another country and have become American citizens then yes they should be stripped and deported after serving their prison term.
American citizens should be charged with treason and go rot in jail for terrorist activities against their country.
There is no constitutial grounds for that so no.
Is Lieberman surely must know that quite a few Americans would like to kick HIM out of the country!
The right wing bigots, because he’s a Jew. And liberals because he’s been stabbing us in the back for years.
But, alas, we liberals don’t really mean it. But the bigots surely do!
What good are rights if they can be arbitrarily striped from you whenever the government finds it convenient?
Treason is already a crime, this is political bullshit.
Anyone know?
Where would we deport natural-born American terrorists to?
Would we send any terrorist with a “Mc” in their name back to Ireland? 😉
The notion is idiotic — no country is going to take state-less former terrorists even after they’ve served their time.
God save America from leaders like Lieberman and Scott Brown — and from the fear-driven Americans who follow them.
Seriously — they don’t embrace even our most fundamental American values.
well lets hope that all the wall street bankers get labeled terrorists the!!!
they certainly have done more to destroy the us then anyone.
To the idiots who voted yes on this, all they have to do is lower the bar for what is considered “terrorism” over time and you will eventually find that the standard is so low that any protest against the government could fit the criteria. It’s called the “slippery slope.” It could never happen here? Bullshit. Besides, there are already numerous laws with heavy penalties against planting bombs anywhere, even ones that would have never worked like the recent one in Times Square. And stripping a citizen of all rights under the Constitution by stripping them of their citizenship wouldn’t have and is not going to deter any of the people who have done such things thus far or would do so in the future while presenting that slippery slope.
The Constitution is a living document. It contains the process to amend it. I’m not saying it currently needs to be, but don’t think of it as a artifact kept in a vault. I don’t think it needs much alteration, because people haven’t changed. Remember none of the Constitutional delegates were happy with it. In fact it was expected to be redrafted in a few years.
Dear Senators Scott Brown and Joe Lieberman,
Steven Hatfill called, and about the politest thing he said was go F*** yourselves.
Populist bullshit. They should also introduce a bill banning throwing puppies and kittens into wood chippers. Or maybe they could do the hard, but unglamorous, work of improving policing because that will actually make a difference in combatting terrorism.