can you tell me a scenario that you are thinking one could lose thier citizenship?
Once again, how does this support the desperate and absurd assertion that the Government can just strip you of your citizenship, claim you are a terrorist and imprison you indefinitely Dan?
If a citizen meets any of the above, they will indeed be given their day in court and the charges will have to be proved; what does this have to do with the detainees in Guantanamo or the Patriot Act?
Well, let's start with the authority the government already has.
I can think of a great many citizen's groups, talk show audiences and even militia organizations which could be made subject to a portion of the sections I have cited, if loosely interpreted. Furthermore, there are powers which the government has retained in the face of courtroom challenges which permit the government to secretly bring charges, obtain warrants, and so forth without proceedings ever seeing the light of day.
It would take a myriad of moving parts brought together in a single legal argument to first strip someone of their citizenship and then detain them indefinitely, but it can be done.
If we were to expand the argument to powers which the government could easily obtain based on past tactics, how about if they perused the authority to strip "violent" sex offenders of their citizenship and then detain them indefinitely for the safety of our children?
Possession of child pornography is classified as a violent offense, and given the way the law is worded you can be convicted under the letter of the law for viewing it on the Web
even if you didn't know you were about to view child pornography. Even if the case against you is uncertain, the DA can threaten to charge you with Receipt if you insist on going to trial, effectively doubling your sentence for having the temerity to exercise your rights.
There's a +98% conviction rate for that kind of crime, and for good reason -- a lot of innocent people plead guilty to a single charge of Possession in the interest of reducing their time in prison, and those whose case sees the light of a courtroom end up faced with a jury box stacked with people who are incensed right out of the starting gate.
The government has acquired a great deal of power by playing on our fears of what a freak with proclivities for children might do to our kids. There has even been talk in New York state (of all places) about detaining convicted sex offenders in psychiatric facilities
after they've served their sentence in prison.
I guess I'll never understand people who accuse the government of usurping power with one breath and then insist that
they'd never do that with the next.