Hofstra Law Review Volume 34 | Issue 3 Article 19 2006 An Old Means to a Different End: The aW r on Terror, American Citizens... and the Treason Clause Benjamin A. Lewis Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Lewis, Benjamin A. (2006) "An Old Means to a Different End: The aW r on Terror, American Citizens... and the Treason Clause," Hofstra Law Review: Vol. 34: Iss. 3, Article 19. Available at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr/vol34/iss3/19 This document is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hofstra Law Review by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Lewis: An Old Means to a Different End: The War on Terror, American Citi NOTE AN OLD MEANS TO A DIFFERENT END: THE WAR ON TERROR, AMERICAN CITIZENS... AND THE TREASON CLAUSE I. INTRODUCTION In 2004, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, while dissenting in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld,' stated that when the United States government accuses one of its own citizens of waging war against it, "our constitutional tradition has been to prosecute him in federal court for treason or some other crime." 2 Justice Scalia added that "[c]itizens aiding the enemy have been treated as traitors subject to the criminal process." 3 The tradition that Justice Scalia speaks of, though, has not been practiced recently. The government has either utilized conspiracy statutes, 4 which encompass some of the elements of treason, 5 or the government has labeled American citizens as enemy combatants and proceeded to detain them indefinitely.6 Justice Scalia's reference to treason, therefore, appears in today's context to be nothing more than a passing note.