Laws are ethics that have been debated, voted upon and written down for all to reference.

A government that does not conform to its own law is weaker for it. This illegal action can now be called out as precident if the president finds it their ethical duty to drone strike another US citizen for potentially false accusations. And wether an accusation is false or not should be determined in a court of law. The ethics of that was heavily debated back before Habeus Corpus was made law in the 1700s after being debated for over 500 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

Ethics are essentially opinion that vary from person to person and can change on a dime.

If the next president decides federated social media platforms are clearly a bunch of psychos plotting to kill everyone and it's their ethical duty to drone strike every member and their family, I'd hope the president would obey the law and arrest everyone to be judged in court.

I'd hope they wouldn't drone strike everyone and say, "Eh, Obama did it, why can't I?

Basic ethics? What's ethical about trying someone in absentia and then blowing up children?