While Sen. Chuck Schumer has backed out of supporting Sen. Joe Lieberman's proposal to allow the State Department to strip citizenship from Americans suspected of associating with terrorist groups, Lieberman is getting some Democratic support (moral, at least) not only from the bill's co-sponsor in the House, Jason Altmire, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
“United States citizenship is a privilege,” [Clinton] said. “It is not a right. People who are serving foreign powers — or in this case, foreign terrorists — are clearly in violation, in my personal opinion, of that oath which they swore when they became citizens.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she supported the “spirit” of the measure, although she urged caution and said that the details of the proposal, like what would trigger a loss of citizenship, still needed to be fleshed out.
Actually, citizenship isn't a "privilege." The Supreme Court has ruled that it is, in fact, a constitutional right. As for supporting the "spirit" of the measure, the practical effect of the law would be equally ephemeral, since in order to pass constitutional muster, the individuals in question would still have to voluntarily relinquish their citizenship by refusing to challenge the process. If they wanted to strip Faisal Shahzad's citizenship for example, all he'd have to do is say that he wasn't intending to relinquish his American citizenship when he planted a bomb in Times Square.
Obviously it's possible that the administration is just humoring Lieberman, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested the White House wasn't so hot on the idea. Republican Minority Leader John Boehner seems to have emerged as the voice of reason:
“If they are a U.S. citizen, until they are convicted of some crime, I don't see how you would attempt to take their citizenship away,” Mr. Boehner said. “That would be pretty difficult under the U.S. Constitution.”
Innocent until proven guilty! A novel concept for some people, apparently. Lieberman defended the proposal by citing the Obama administration's assertion that it has the right to assassinate American citizens who join terror groups:
Citing with approval news reports that President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing the targeted killing of a radical Yemeni-American cleric, Anwar Al-Awlaki, Mr. Lieberman argued that if that policy was legal — and he said he believed it was — then stripping people of citizenship for joining terrorist organizations should also be acceptable.
Hard to argue with that. Some people warn you about the slippery slope, other people grab a sled.
-- A. Serwer
