On Monday, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, launched to Congress a invoice which, if handed, would authorize the president of the USA to problem letters of marque and reprisal to grab Russian property.
The eccentric proposal comes amid worldwide furor over Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which started Feb. 23.
“Corrupt Russian oligarchs have enabled Putin’s struggle,” the lawmaker tweeted. “That’s why I’ve launched laws to permit U.S. residents to SEIZE yachts and jets of sanctioned Russians.”
Previously, letters of marque and reprisal allowed privately owned and operated seafaring vessels to hold out acts of struggle, which grew to become often known as privateering — not fairly piracy, however fairly darn shut.
“Russian yachts are already on the transfer and if the Biden Administration and our allies in Europe fail to behave shortly these vessels will quickly be out of our attain,” Gooden mentioned in an announcement to The Hill.
The invoice, which might enable People to grab property on behalf of the U.S. authorities, could be a return to a standard apply through the Warfare of 1812, however it has not been used since.
Letters of marque have largely been rendered out of date by worldwide treaties. Nonetheless, the measure has by no means been faraway from the U.S. Structure. The flexibility to grant letters of marque is present in Article 1 of the Structure, listed as an enumerated energy of Congress.
“Whereas modifications in warfare and developments in worldwide legislation have largely vanquished their function, Congressional authority to problem such letters stays, having by no means been repealed,” wrote Navy Cmdr. Jonathan Nonetheless in a thesis on the subject.
It’s additionally unlikely that the legislation was meant to embody the leisure-craft of oligarchs again within the 18th century when the Structure was written. However such particulars are immaterial to Gooden, who at any second could board Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supposed 270-foot superyacht and proclaim, “I’m the captain now.”
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Sarah Sicard is a Senior Editor with Army Occasions. She beforehand served because the Digital Editor of Army Occasions and the Army Occasions Editor. Different work might be discovered at Nationwide Protection Journal, Activity & Function, and Protection News.
