[FreedomPoster]

I’m glad to see this getting aired in the WSJ. More people need to understand the concept of Letters of Marque that is embedded in the Constitution. It completely backs up the idea that the citizenry has a right to own serious armaments.

[Carl Vehse]

Now if we can still find a copy of the U.S. Constitution in Washington DC, or enough patriots in Congress (yes, that is getting close to an oxymoron) to issue letters of marque.

[Alberta's Child]

One problem in this case is that the legal/constitutional basis for such an approach is sketchy at best.

For one thing, we live in an age where we are exposed to something that the founders of this country never envisioned simply because it was physically impossible at the time: an attack on the infrastructure of this country that is carried out by an "adversary" who never sets foot inside our borders.

Another issue is that the culprits in a "piracy" case like this aren't necessarily acting on behalf of any government or organized faction within a foreign country. Under the U.S. Constitution, letters of marque and reprisal are supposed to be war powers, not law enforcement measures.