A federal judge ruled that six Somali pirates can't be charged with piracy under U.S. law. The six are accused of attacking a U.S. Navy ship off the Somali coast.
While it may seem like a bizarre ruling, the judge appears to have made the correct legal ruling. The controlling case is a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1820 that defined piracy as "robbery at sea". Prosecutors tried to expand this definition of piracy to includes any violent acts at sea, since the pirates were thwarted in completing their attack so no robbery occurred.
But the judge didn't bend to political expediency or use today's norms to decide the case: his decision rests on the law as it stands.
The pirates do face other charges with lesser penalties, but what this case illustrates is the need for a new, revised law to govern piracy in the U.S.
So while the Obama administration has been in extremely active in promoting legislation to reorder our economy, they have dropped the ball on promoting new laws to protect us from modern threats.
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