5 ms·
I've long been curious about this: In the Civil War, the United States killed hundreds of thousands of Confederate soldiers, (without a trial, of course). Yet t
by naftaliharris 14y ago
I've long been curious about this: In the Civil War, the United States killed hundreds of thousands of Confederate soldiers, (without a trial, of course). Yet the fifth amendment explicitly states that "No person shall be ...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;"
Does anybody know how the Lincoln administration justified the use of deadly force during the Civil War? Presumably this would be a reasonable precedent to look at when determining the legality of killing American citizens without a trial.
- aristus 14y agoLincoln and Grant suspended habeus corpus for this reason. Leaving aside the preliminaries, once the shooting started the government had an armed insurrection within their borders. Article 1, section 9: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." Following from that, imagine telling an army that it is under arrest. :)
- tptacek 14y agoWe didn't suspend habeas during World War 2, and we did kill US citizens in Europe.
- csense 14y ago> we did kill US citizens in Europe We did? Was it on purpose [1]? Can you provide some references? [1] I'd certainly believe that it's almost impossible to have a nonzero amount of friendly fire casualties in any military operation of this size.
- tptacek 14y agoA nonzero number of American citizens of Germanic descent left the country to fight for Germany before the US declared war.
- aristus 14y agoI'm pretty sure that travelling to another country and joining an army currently at war with the US makes you fair game. In fact: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1481 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1481
- tptacek 14y agoIt's also the Article III section 3 Constitutional definition of treason. But we didn't put those people on trial; we defeated them in combat.
- aristus 14y agoSure, if someone commits treason and then surrenders nicely, put them on trial. But if they are shooting at you, what are your options? The technical crime of treason being committed by some percentage of people in an opposing army seems to be a real distant second to the shooting. How do you arrest an army?
- zdw 14y agoArticle 1, Section 9. Habeus Corpus (right to a trial) can be suspended during a rebellion.