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Could Congress let you seize this Russian oligarch's yacht?
Link to tweet
Tweet text:
Philip Bump
@pbump
There is a non-zero (though exceedingly low) chance that Congress might soon let you get some friends together and seize an oligarch's yacht to keep as your own.
washingtonpost.com
Analysis | Could Congress let you seize this Russian oligarch’s yacht?
A member of Congress has proposed reviving the constitutional power of letters of marque.
1:31 PM · Mar 1, 2022
Philip Bump
@pbump
There is a non-zero (though exceedingly low) chance that Congress might soon let you get some friends together and seize an oligarch's yacht to keep as your own.
washingtonpost.com
Analysis | Could Congress let you seize this Russian oligarch’s yacht?
A member of Congress has proposed reviving the constitutional power of letters of marque.
1:31 PM · Mar 1, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/01/could-congress-let-you-seize-this-russian-oligarchs-yacht/
No paywall
https://archive.fo/JV1xy
At about a quarter past 10 on Tuesday morning, a private jet apparently belonging to a man named Roman Abramovich took off from an airport near Moscow. I know this because a teenager named Jack Sweeney created an automated tool tracking the departures and arrivals of a very select group of aircraft: those owned by oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Those jets and the yachts owned by the same group have attracted an enormous amount of attention in the week since Russia invaded Ukraine. In large part, it’s because those vehicles in many cases represent a very tangible manifestation of the corruption at the heart of Putin’s regime. International sanctions have hobbled the Russian economy, but the political effect is muted if, at the same time, a billionaire empowered by Putin is docking his massive ship in Capri. Hence Sweeney’s tool. It’s an attempt to shine light on how the unofficial economy of Russia operates.
But what if it were something else? What if it were also a way for you to get yourself a new Gulfstream?
Buried in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution is a federal power that will probably be unfamiliar to a layperson. Among the powers granted Congress, it reads, is that to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” So what does that mean? It means the federal government is authorized by the Constitution to issue documents (letters of marque) that empower private individuals to legally seize foreign vessels.
The practice of privateering, as it’s known, is largely archaic, having been banned by treaty in most countries in the 19th century. But at the time, the United States declined to sign on, worried that doing so would cut off one way in which its naval inferiority could be offset. Were there a war between the United States and a foreign power with a substantial fleet, we could make up some of the difference with the enemy by issuing letters of marque that provided bounties for those willing to engage and destroy foreign ships. In fact, this was a significant factor in the Revolutionary War, during which Britain lost more than 550 ships to American privateers.
*snip*
Let’s Go!!!
12 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
… a private army to protect them — or quickly could, by asking Eric Prince. Attempting to board one uninvited would probably be a mistake.
Still, I hope certain countries start seizing them at the docks “for inspection.”
