Taking full advantage of the failed bombing in Times Square, opportunist Senators Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown have proposed a bill to revoke American citizenship from people suspected of allying themselves with terrorists. One needs only to look at the sponsors of
The Terrorist Expatriation Act (TEA) to guess that this is really bad legislation.
TEA would ultimately allow the government to try Americans citizens suspected of supporting terrorist groups by military commission. What's that mean? Individuals like the Pakistani-born Faisal Shahzad (suspected Times Square bomb plotter) would not be read Miranda Rights, given access to a lawyer or, ultimately, a fair trial.
Amazingly, it's Republican Representative John Bohner of Ohio that cuts to the heart of what's wrong with TEA, "“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. That would be pretty difficult under the U.S. Constitution.”
Unfortunately, this is not going to go away without a fight. Democrats are already starting to lie down. Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Obama administration is
open to modifying Miranda protections .