> What would the constitutional argument be? Nothing jumps out at me, but IANAL so I'm not sure. I guess holding citizens for ransom seems so damn un-American

> What would the constitutional argument be? Nothing jumps out at me, but IANAL so I'm not sure. I guess holding citizens for ransom seems so damn un-American[0] to me that I hope/wish there's a good Constitutional barrier to it. edit: [0] By "American", I mean the qualities of freedom and liberty that I was taught, in the 1970's public school system, distinguished the U.S. from most other countries.