A little-noticed federal appeals court ruling this year threatens a key weapon in the United States’ war on drugs: A decades-old law that gives the U_S_ broad authority to make high-seas drug smuggling arrests anywhere in the world, even if those drugs aren’t bound for the U_S_ The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act gives the U_S_ unique policing powers anywhere on the seas whenever it determines a vessel is ‘œwithout nationality.’�