Abstract
The author's proposition is a simple but bracing one: The President of the US, in his capacity as military Commander in Chief of the nation's armed forces in time of constitutionally authorized war, has the plenary power and discretion under the US Constitution to target and kill specific individuals that he in good faith determines to be active enemy combatants engaged in lawful or unlawful hostilities against the US. By "active enemy combatants" the author means persons affiliated with an enemy force or power who have not been captured, who have not surrendered, and who have not laid down their arms and ceased their war-waging activities against the US. The author's assumption in this article is that such enemy combatants might include US citizens. His legal position is that, where US citizens engage in war against the US, the war power of the US may be employed against them, just as it could be employed against non-US citizens engaged in war against the US.