The “double-tap” attacks on Caribbean vessels paired with the pardon of a top-level convicted Honduran trafficker reveal a disturbing drift, where presidential will determines justice, not the rule of law. Precedents like these are already influencing domestic law enforcement, from Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids to threats against members of Congress.

The killing of helpless injured people in the Caribbean is horrifying. US forces reportedly launched a second missile at survivors clinging to debris—after the first strike destroyed their vessel. This incident should prompt congressional hearings and investigations, military resignations, and a national debate about who we are as a country.

We should all be troubled by how easily our government now resorts to violence without law—and how familiar that pattern has become. This is not just a series of isolated decisions. It indicates a major shift in the American system of justice. We are drifting from a system based on legal principles to one in which the will of a single leader determines who is guilty and who is innocent, and who lives and who dies. When justice no longer comes from the rule of law but instead from the laws of one ruler, the republic itself is at risk.

The strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific—including the alleged “double-tap” attack in September—are justified by the administration as part of an expanded war on narcotics. But at the same time President Donald Trump orders executions at sea based solely on suspicion, he pardons an actual, convicted narcotrafficker: former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was found guilty in a US court. That contradiction tells us everything we need to know. These policies are not about drugs. They are about unrestrained executive power.

We have seen this pattern before. In March, the administration launched unauthorized strikes in Yemen on “terrorists” based on reasoning that no one outside a small inner circle had reviewed, except of course for the journalist accidentally added to a secret chat—the incident now known as “Signalgate.” In November, the White House welcomed the new president of Syria: a man once wanted by the US government for leading both al-Qaeda and ISIS factions during the Syrian civil war. If a president can target one alleged wrongdoer with missiles while inviting another to the Oval Office, then “justice” is no longer about law. It’s about convenience.

The erosion of constitutional principle is no longer limited to distant battlefields. It is now being directed at members of Congress themselves. When Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and several colleagues reminded US service members that they are legally obligated to........

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