A little-known congressional power could help the federal government keep the Somali pirates in check — and possibly do it for a discount price.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe.
Used heavily during the Revolution and the War of 1812, letters of marque serve as official warrants from the government, allowing privateers to seize or destroy enemies, their loot and their vessels in exchange for bounty money.
The letters also require would-be thrill seekers to post a bond promising to abide by international rules of war.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Bringing Back Letters of Marque and Reprisal, One Pirate at a Time
OK, I'm not saying this actually a good idea, but I can see something like this coming up on issue spotter for a ConLaw exam:
Hey, does LRAP cover pirate-hunting? It's a public service, after all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
First Robert instead of Robot, now Priate? This is turning into ATL in terms of spellchecking.
oh noes!
yeah 1:39AM, good job pointing out grammar mistakes on a blog. Nice life
Agreed. I definitely felt like for all the time we spent on Letters of Marque and Reprisal in class, we didn't really get tested on it.
Why don't we go ahead and test the emoluments clause while we're at it?
Post a Comment