A Crime To Represent

The issue in this case is the right of citizens to be able to go to court to challenge government action. Here, the government is trying to assassinate a US citizen who they say is a terrorist. The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights are trying to go into court to challenge that assassination effort, but at this point we have to get permission from the government to even go into court to represent them to raise these constitutional issues. So we think it's unconstitutional, and we're asking that the court strike that down and allow us to get to the point of this, which is under what circumstances can the government execute somebody without due process of law.

-- Bill Quigley of the Center for Constitutional Rights on a lawsuit challenging the designation of Anwar al-Awlaki as a "specially designated global terrorist", making it a crime to represent him in court; al-Awlaki is the first US citizen added to a CIA list of targets for capture or killing, 4 August 2010