[WhiskeyPapa] Who used the term "unlawful combatants"?
[WhiskeyPapa] What am I missing? The Court said in Milligan that military courts should not operate where civilian courts -could- operate. Could civilian Courts NOT operate in New York and Florida in 1942?
You brought up the Germans. What you are missing is in Ex Parte Quirin.
Lawful combatants are subject to capture and detention as prisoners of war by opposing military forces. Unlawful combatants are likewise subject to capture and detention, but in addition they are subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals for acts which render their belligerency unlawful. The spy who secretly and without uniform passes the military lines of a belligerent in time of war, seeking to gather military information and communicate it to the enemy, or an enemy combatant who without uniform comes secretly through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property, are familiar examples of belligerents who are generally deemed not to be entitled to the status of prisoners of war, but to be offenders against the law of war subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals.
The Germans were held to be unlawful combatants and subject to trial by military tribunal.
Was the term "unlawful combatant" is use before the SCOTUS slapped it on these Germans?
My point with the Germans is that the government may take actions in war time that look suspect in retrospect. That's too easy.
Walt