Notice and an Opportunity to Be Heard Before the President Kills You

For years, the United States has targeted members of terrorist groups. Critics have argued that this is a practice of illegal assassinations and that the process of choosing targets lacks due process. This article proposes that officials are required to apply the rule of reason of the Mathews v. Eldridge balancing test to develop procedural controls for targeted killing. The application of these standards should be much different for personality strikes than for tank battles on a conventional battlefield. The former allow for deliberation rather than split-second decisions, and their targets should be selected through careful discussions. It should thus come as no surprise that the law requires formal procedures for targeted killing in ways that would be impracticable for other uses of force during armed conflicts.