A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit over the government's targeting of American imam Anwar al-Awlaki for assassination because al-Awlaki's father, and not al-Awlaki himself, filed the suit. Courthouse is open 8 to 5, Anwar, so come on down!

Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and now lives in hiding in Yemen, is viewed by the U.S. government as a recruiter for Al Qaida because he has repeatedly called on Muslims to kill Americans. So they want to kill him, even though he's a U.S. citizen, and citizens—even really, really bad ones—are generally accorded such constitutional courtesies as not being summarily executed without a trial.

Al-Awlaki's father, with the help of the ACLU, filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the assassination of his son and demanding that the U.S. government reveal the criteria by which it decided to target the younger al-Awlaki. But today, U.S. District Judge John Bates threw the case out, according to the Associated Press, "because Anwar al-Awlaki did not bring the suit."

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "That's absurd! How could an American-Yemeni fugitive who is being actively hunted down by U.S. capture-or-kill teams possibly avail himself of the American legal system in order to stop his own assassination?" But before you do, just remember: The United States of America is the only country on the planet that will let you challenge the legality of its hit squads, so long as you do it yourself, in open court.