The killing of an American-born al-Qaida leader by a drone strike in Yemen last year raised troubling questions about whether the government can legally target U.S. citizens abroad against whom it has presented no evidence and who have never been charged with a crime.

Last week, Attorney General Eric H. Holder appeared before Congress to assure members that such targeted killings are lawful, but it can’t be said his arguments were entirely convincing.

Holder claimed the Constitution gives the president authority to strike suspected terrorists anywhere in the world – including U.S. citizens – if he believes they represent an “imminent threat” to the nation’s security. The determining factors, he added, were what he called the “window of opportunity to act,” the possible harm to civilians of not acting, and “the likelihood of heading off future disastrous attacks against the United States.”

However, Holder’s argument relies on a rather expansive definition of “imminent threat.”

Under his interpretation, U.S. officials would not have to know the “precise time, place and manner of an attack” but merely that some kind of operation was in the works, even if they had no idea what it was. Nor would they have to get a court’s permission before acting.

Given that premise, Holder’s claim that people targeted by the policy would still enjoy their right to “due process” of the law becomes even more elastic. The executive branch’s review of all the facts of a case would be considered the equivalent of a “judicial process” and carry the weight of law.

To us, that sounds like another way of saying that the president can assume the role of judge, jury and executioner. And since the proceedings would all take place in secrecy, the public would have no way of judging either the facts of the case or the appropriateness of the action the government took.

The more expansive view of the legal underpinnings of that policy, epitomized by the targeted killing of terrorist suspects abroad, has never been tested in the courts, and it should be.

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