Fourth: Criminal defendants are entitled to a “jury of their peers.” Anyone want to bet that ACLU-supported lawyers won’t claim that such a jury must include some Muslims? And if so, what are the odds at least one juror will hold out for “not guilty,” or at least for “no death penalty” if there is a conviction? Neither of those would apply in a tribunal, where the judge and jury is a panel of nine U.S. military officers.
Fifth: There is a unanimous (8-0) Supreme Court decision, Ex Parte Quirin (1942), holding it constitutional to try Nazi bombers who entered the U.S. from submarines, before a military tribunal, not a criminal court trial subject to the Bill of Rights. This is a short decision, written in plain English, that even laymen can read and understand. It has been affirmed in recent years as good law by the current Supreme Court.
Somewhere in the bowels of the Justice Department is a memo written by career lawyers, reciting all of these points. But the business of this Attorney General is to do what he’s told, no matter whether that outcome is moral, legal or constitutional. This is a continuation of the Marc Rich pardon under President Clinton.
The moving of this trial displays to our enemies that we are both cowardly and foolish. That display WILL cause additional deaths of American soldiers and civilians. The only way this dangerous decision can be stopped is if Congress votes to de-fund it. Otherwise, there is a chance that the defendants, who have already confessed, will walk free into the streets of New York City.