Legal Commentary

Citizenship Stripping Proponents Misunderstand The Sixth Amendment

By Big Tent Democrat

Citizenship stripping proponents seem to have as their goal removing terror trials from the federal courts:

“It reflects the changing nature of war and recent events,” [Sen. Scott] Brown [R-MA] said Thursday. “War has moved into a new dimension. Individuals who pick up arms — this is what I believe — have effectively denounced their citizenship, and this legislation simply memorializes that effort. So somebody who wants to burn their passport, well, let’s help them along.”

Identical legislation is also being introduced in the House by two Pennsylvania congressmen, Jason Altmire, a Democrat, and Charlie Dent, a Republican. The lawmakers said at a news conference that revoking citizenship would block terrorism suspects from using American passports to re-enter the United States and make them eligible for prosecution before a military commission instead of a civilian court.

(Emphasis supplied.) This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the Sixth Amendment:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Sixth Amendment rights are not limited to citizens. The stripping of citizenship will not in any way affect a suspected terrorists Sixth Amendment rights to a civil trial in federal court for criminal charges.

As I wrote earlier, to get the criminal justice system out of the fight against terrorism, Congress will have to repeal all federal laws the criminalize terrorism. It is a s simple as that.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 07, 2010 (boomark / email).