Are We Going to Follow the Constitution or Not?

Anwar al-Awlaki is dead.  Most people will think that is a good thing.  He was a terrorist that was hell bent on doing destruction to this country and to it's citizens.  Of that there is little dispute.  The dispute comes from how he was killed.  Not the drone, but the lack of due process in the situation. 

In most cases it only the very far right and the very far left that are up in arms.  It ranges from the ACLU to Ron Paul who have spoken out against this.  Now, I have not done any research but I am sure that the likes of Cindy Sheehan is also against what happened.  I hate to be in that company regularly, but today I must join them. 

Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the constitution gives the president the right to kill an American citizen without due process.  al-Awlaki was born in this country; if I am not mistaken that makes him an American citizen, with the rights afforded to all of us. 

The Obama and Bush administrations should have started the legal process to indict him.  Neither administration bothered to do that.  The Obama administration thought about it, but it never went beyond that stage.  Why?  They had the goods on him.  There were plenty of videos of the man declaring his desire to kill Americans and commit terrorists acts against the rest of us.  There are at least incidents in this country that lead back to him; the failed Times Square bomber, the failed Christmas Day airplane bomber, and the successful Fort Hood shooter.  All of which happened under the Obama administration.  Why didn't DOJ go to court and get him declared an enemy combatant?  I would like an answer to that question.

Just consider one thing, this is one man.  The fact that he is a bad man isn't the important point.  The important point is that we, as citizens, are willingly giving up our rights as American citizens and handing the president unprecedented powers.  We are not up in arms that the American president has killed an American citizen without any due process, and we should be.

How long ago was it that as a member of the Tea Party I was called terrorist? Don't say that this doesn't matter people, it does.  The terrorists are winning if are willing to give up this much power to one person.  I say stand with the constitution and demand an answer of why this terrorist was never formally indicted.  It isn't about one man, it is about the rule of law and adherence to our founding documents. 

Here are two other sides:

My fellow blogger at Potluck Fuzzi Slippers and I are in agreement
Silverfiddle on the other hand feels it was a righteous and legal kill. 

So I am on team Fuzzi.

What say you?