Quick! Spot the difference?

It's the mustache.

At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets": in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality.

Obama Argues His Assassination Program is a "State Secret"

by Glenn Greenwald

Obama thinks he has the authority to order you killed.

No charges.

No trial.

No judge or jury.

And you have no right to face your accuser, or defend yourself in court.

This isn't the power of a President of the United States.

It's the power of an Adolf Hitler.

And a Josef Stalin.

And a Pol Pot.

And a bunch of other bloody bastards we say we're different from.

I'd like to know just where this supposed former "constitutional law instructor" finds this authority.

There's nothing in my copy of the constitution that gives the President --- or anyone else -- any such power. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Don't take my word for it.

Look it up, yourself.

The Constitution also does not grant any "state secret" privileges, either.

But I suppose when we allow this SOB to murder Iraquis and Afghanis and Pakistanis with impunity, we can't be too awfully surprised that we're also to be subjected to his imperial power.

Mr. Obama, like his predecessor, belongs in jail or on the gallows.

sj