On Monday, March 5, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. delivered a speech at Northwestern University School of Law. The speech was billed as a major address that would outline the Obama administration’s legal justification for the targeted killing of American citizens. Students clamored to attend.
Afterwards, students were abuzz, debating the merits of the new policy. But many of us, on all sides of the political spectrum, were deeply disappointed by the attorney general’s speech. Indeed, many were shocked, because a policy of this obvious significance demanded a better explanation than the one we were given. It demands an explanation that adheres to established methods of inquiry — methods that our courts and legal institutions rely on to establish and maintain the rule of law and fidelity to the Constitution.
