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Obviously you are right on this concern about American citizens being dead BEFORE their rights can be vindicated which is all the more reason why the courts (read SCOTUS ultimately) should act vigorously to vindicate judicial authority and react massively to the matter of the fate of al Awlaki and his son being taken out of judicial hands by an administration run amok, trampling due process and thumbing an administrative nose at judicial authority. Nixon did not kill any American citizens without due process as I recall but he did thumb his nose at judicial authority and the judiciary responded massively. Time for a rerun on that.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I despise the al Awlakis of this world, but a citizen is a citizen and entitled to the rights of a citizen under our Constitution. People (not I) may argue as to whether we have God-given rights. It is not particularly permissible or rational for anyone to ignore those rights that are enumerated in the Constitution and, above all, where the rights are personal such as the right to due process and protect the individual FROM government overreaching.

The judge (Irving Kaufman) in the Rosenberg case was a Jewish man lest anyone suggest successfully that anti-Semitism was a motive for the prosecution. That judge's family had to move, I believe, to a log cabin in rural Vermont, for their safety during the trial because of threats. No one would have blamed Kaufman for begging off but that would have weakened the judiciary.

Two leading prosecutors of the Rosenbergs were also Jewish for probably similar reasons: Irving Saypol and Roy Cohn. The Stalinists threw every sort of attack at the government, the judge, the prosecutors, the prosecution witnesses, etc., but to no avail because these prosecutors and the judge had the backbone to vindicate judicial authority and the espionage laws of the United States. The younger defense attorney of a father and son team dropped dead at an early age not long after the trial with his exhaustion in the defense effort being a major cause. The defense lawyers were also a credit to the bar regardless of their ideology or motives.

I seldom wish the ACLU well given its history but this suit against Treasury is a serious exception to my rule. They deserve credit for trying and MAJOR credit if they win. I do not see Stephen Breyer or Ruth Ginsberg siding with the government on this. If Sotomayor, Kagan or any other justice agrees with Obozo on this, their resignations should be submitted along with their opinions and they should be pilloried ina future book entitled: Profiles in Treason and Cowardice.