In her essay Can US Citizens Be Held as Enemy Combatants, Jennifer Vanklausen explores the ethical question of our government's policy of detaining American citizens suspected of terrorist activity against the United States as an enemy combatant, denying its constitutional rights as provided in the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, during an undeclared war. Vanklausen relies on primary and secondary sources with strong credentials in the fields of the Constitution, law, public policy, and Americans' right to liberty (Cato Inst., n.d.; Wikipedia, 2010) to support his thesis. The authors have been published in a variety of respected periodicals and have written books on these topics. His sources cite the opinions of Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia (“Can US Citizens Be Held as Enemy Combatants,” Reinking & von der Osten, 2007, pp. 228, 231-233), to which they are entrusted with the ultimate responsibility to interpret our nation's Constitution and to apply this standard to arguments brought before the Court when the rule of law is in question. Ms. Vanklausen also uses excerpts from the Bill of Rights to clarify the protections these individuals are not afforded in this situation. Provides a quote from Thomas Jefferson and notes decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Second Circuit Court, and Federal Court Judge Mukasey. It also refers to established truths that Americans depend on as signs of their freedom, such as “The foundation of freedom has always rested on resistance to the idea of ​​arbitrary incarceration by a leader. (Reinking & von der Osten, 2007) This essay focuses first on the reasoning for deeming Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi enemy combatants to establish...... middle of paper ...... and possibly violate the rights of the people who gave them power. However, it seems that he does not fully understand all the concepts involved in this issue to express his opinion with maximum clarity. Works CitedCato Institute (n.d.). [profile]. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.cato.org/people/nat-hentoffCato Institute (n.d.). [profile]. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://www.cato.org/people/harvey-silverglateJ. A. Reinking and R. von der Osten, R. (2007). Strategies for Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentiss Hall. ISBN: 0-13-189195-2. Wikipedia (2010). [profile]. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Norman_GriggWikipedia (2010). [profile]. Retrieved April 3, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Wittes