Senators Want to Strip Terror Suspects of Citizenship

Opponents wave the Constitution
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 6, 2010 2:05 PM CDT
Senators Want to Strip Terror Suspects of Citizenship
A file photo of Faisal Shahzad.   (AP Photo/Orkut.com)

Joe Lieberman unveiled his controversial proposal today to strip Americans linked to terror groups of their American citizenship, reports the Hill. Scott Brown is on board and says he has "a feeling that a lot of our colleagues feel the same." They see it as common-sense legislation—why give terrorists the advantage of a US passport?—but opponents on the left and right see it running smack up against the Constitution.

"If they’re a US citizen, until they’re convicted of some crime I don’t know how you would attempt to take their citizenship away," says House GOP leader John Boehner, reports Bloomberg. "It would be pretty difficult under the US Constitution.” At Salon, Alex Pareene thinks the acronym says all. Lieberman "has literally named this affront to the Constitution the Terrorist Expatriation Act—or, the TEA Act. Hey, I wonder which reactionary white populists he's looking to appeal to with a name like that?" (More citizenship stories.)

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