“Church Lessons”: Revisiting America’s Assassination Ban

Abstract

The following article sets out to provide a historical account of the assassination ban in the United States. As such, it traces the roots of the prohibition, analysis processes, and forces at work that shaped its path towards acceptance and looks at the wider political context that made its introduction possible. Recently declassified US National Security archive data: testimonies, notes, raw files, and other forms of political correspondence provide a solid basis for comprehensive examination of America's historical assassination plots, a subject that often cannot be easily investigated due to its politically sensitive nature.