UN expert urges US to review domestic and international lethal-force practices News
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UN expert urges US to review domestic and international lethal-force practices

A UN expert warned on Thursday that growing use of excessive and unlawful use of lethal force by US military and security forces both internationally and domestically is “gravely concerning.”

The report came from Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. He condemned US official statements indicating a “shoot-to-kill” policy and explained the “absolute and universal prohibition of the arbitrary deprivation of life,” stating:

International law does not allow States to kill on the basis of labels, perceptions of how someone appears, or allegations of wrongdoing. Whether at sea, abroad, or at home, the use of lethal force must be strictly limited by the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and precaution, and may be used only as a last resort to protect life.

Tidball-Binz referred to the “scores of deaths” resulting from US military action in Venezuela in early January. He cited other UN reports finding that unprovoked use of force on the territory of another state breaches Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. “Deaths resulting from such an act of aggression are arbitrary by definition,” Tidball-Binz contended, because they have resulted from a breach of international law.

The expert was “particularly troubled” over US strikes on small vessels in the Caribbean and evidence that at least some of these could have been intercepted, rather than destroyed. Between September 2, 2025, and an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report in December, the Trump administration ordered 26 lethal strikes on civilian boats, killing 99 people suspected of drug trafficking. In November, the UN stated that these strikes may constitute war crimes.

Trump administration statements on these international violations include a social media post by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the operations in the Caribbean are “lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict.” Trump has indicated intentions to oversee the Venezuelan government transition. In a recent interview, he pressured interim Venezuelan leader, Delcy Rodríguez, to continue cooperation with the US, threatening that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

Domestically, Tidball-Binz expressed his concerns about the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE in Minneapolis on January 7. He stressed that all deaths involving any law enforcement must be investigated in a prompt, thorough, impartial and transparent manner, abiding by the Minnesota Protocol. The Protocol is a UN Manual about the legal obligations of all countries to respect and protect life and investigate suspicious deaths.

President Trump responded to protests following the shooting by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to Minneapolis.

The UN expert urged the US to “urgently review” relevant laws and policies regarding the use of force both domestically and internationally, again summarizing the implications. “The right to life is non-derogable and non-negotiable,” he wrote. “States must never normalise a ‘shoot-to-kill’ approach which erodes the strict and absolute limits international law places on the use of lethal force.”

THIS DAY @ LAW

Nixon nominated Harrold Carswell to the US Supreme Court

On January 19, 1970, President Richard Nixon nominated Judge G. Harrold Carswell of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to the US Supreme Court. The nomination became intensely controversial after a reporter discovered the text of a 1948 political campaign speech by Carswell in which he said "segregation of the races is proper." The Senate eventually rejected the nomination 51-45. ------------------- Afterword In November 2004, a JURIST reader wrote with regard to this entry: You are factually correct. The speech is accurately quoted. But the most significant part of it wasn't that quote -- which, after all, reflected the law of the land through Brown v. Board of Education. The most significant part was Carswell's avowal of his "firm, vigorous belief in the principles of white supremacy." I recall this because I was the reporter who discovered the speech, in the basement of the Wilkinson County courthouse in Georgia, where it was preserved as lead story in The Irwinton Bulletin, a weekly Carswell edited, which was kept because it was the legal paper of record." Edward Roeder later added: "just to ensure the accuracy of my quote from the speech -- including capitalization and punctuation -- let me check it. At the moment, I'm at the Library of Congress, a couple of blocks from my home where I have a photograph I took of the speech as printed in 1948 in the weekly newspaper. Another great quote spawned by that confirmation battle was by Sen. Judiciary Committee Ranking Republican Roman Hruska, in response to the charge that Carswell was "mediocre." Hruska famously told the cameras staked outside the hearing room: "Even if he was mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers . . . They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there." One other aspect of that nomination might be worth noting. After Carswell's defeat, the seat went to Harry Blackmun. A year and a half later, he wrote Roe v. Wade," probably the most controversial and far-reaching SCOTUS decision since Brown."And finally:I found and reviewed my photo of Carswell's 1948 speech. First, it may be helpful to provide a bit of context for the part you quoted. The graf read, "I Am A Southerner By Ancestry, Birth, Training, Inclination, Belief And Practice. I Believe That Segregation Of The Races is Proper And The ONLY Practical And Correct Way Of Life In Our States." The first letter of each word is capitalized, the the word ONLY is in all caps. The "white supremacy" quote, two grafs later, is as strident: "I Yield To NO MAN, As A Fellow Candidate, Or As A Fellow Citizen, In The Firm Vigirous Belief In The Principles Of White Supremacy, And I Shall Always Be So Governed." Again, the first letter of each word is capitalized, and NO MAN is in all caps. "Vigorous" is misspelled in the newspaper. JURIST thanks Mr. Roeder for sharing his recollections - and his role in a fascinating snippet of Supreme Court history.

Tribunal established for Japan war criminals

On January 19, 1946, General Douglas MacArthur promulgated the Charter for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, creating a court in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals after World War II. Pursuant to Article 7 of the Charter, the Court's Rules of Procedure were set three months later. The judges and prosecutors represented the allied nations of the United States, the USSR, China, the Netherlands, Canada, France, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and India. Article 6 of the Charter divided the accused War Criminals into three classes. Class A war criminals were those guilty of crimes against peace. Class B war criminals were those found guilty of actual war crimes. The highest-level war criminals fell into Class C for crimes against humanity. Court prosecutors indicted over 5,700 people in Japan for Class B and C War Crimes. When the tribunal's final judgment was issued two years later on November 1, 1948, 984 of the defendants were convicted and sentenced to death. 475 of them were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, while 2,944 received lesser prison terms. Finally, 1,297 Japanese defendants were either acquitted, not tried, or not sentenced. Many Japanese defendants were indicted for their actions during the occupation of China. Read the indictment of Class A war criminals involved in the Rape of Nanking.

American Civil Liberties Union founded

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded on January 19, 1920 by a group of civil rights activists and lawyers. The group's founders included Helen Keller, labor activist Elizabeth Gurley-Flynn and future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. The organization would be involved in the Scopes Monkey Trial and the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Learn more about the history of the American Civil Liberties Union.