Of course they are.
(1) However, the Constitution of the United States cannot compel any other nation to recognize any letters of marque and reprisal issued by the Congress of the United States.
And, as a point of their own domestic laws, no other nation on earth recognizes letters of marque and reprisal issued by the Congress of the United States or any other country.
(2) The Constitution places no obligation on the United States to recognize letters of marque and reprisal issued by any other nation.
And, as a point of our own domestic law, we do not recognize such letters issued by foreign governments as having the force of law.
Congress is authorized by the Constitution to issue letters of marque and reprisal all the livelong day if it desires - but no one outside the United States will recognize those letters as having legal force. It would a completely pointless exercise.
“I think it’s helpful. The more people the terrorists have after them, the better. The police have jobs to do beside tracking down bail jumpers, so bounty hunters come in handy.
Same for terrorists. A bounty hunter who lives for the chase is willing to cross from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to track someone down. Quite routinely bounty hunters will go to Mexico to grab someone who jumped bail in California or Texas. They’re more efficient than cops, who would have to notify local Mexican authorities, argue extradition, etc. Red tape dissolves when privateers are around.”
Wideawake is that you?
Well, then, it seems to me it was a completely pointless excercise to make mention of them and authorize them in our founding documents.
Should we really think those who excercise letters of marque wait for further “authorization” from the people who are served such letters? The letter is just a formal way of saying one has been sent under the authority of his country to take and break another’s stuff.
We are authorized to send private individuals to do this, and those individuals may do so without fear of being prosecuted by our country. The other country will obviously not recognize it as legal. Who cares? It’s end of story. Their stuff is gone, and there isn’t a thing they can do about it unless they want to come, fight, and lose even more stuff.
Of course we are not obligated to respect letters of marque served upon our own interests. That would be ridiculous. Our military and law enforcement are permitted, if not obligated, to engage anyone who tries.