Rand Paul’s Historic Right-to-Trial Speech, Vote Soon
ACTIVISM ALERT:
SENATE TO VOTE ON AMENDMENT 3018 BY LATE MORNING. PLEASE CALL.
Senate Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Find your senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
I rise today in support of Sen. Feinstein’s amendment. I compliment her on her work and I also echo the importance of the right to trial by jury. In fact, I’m appalled that anyone would think that we could arrest anyone in our country without charging them and giving them a right to a trial. It seems so fundamentally un-American. I agree with her also that I think the Supreme Court would apply this to anyone. Our amendment will say citizens and permanent residents, but I think the Supreme Court, if challenged, will uphold the right to trial by jury of anyone within the United States.
Today, we will either affirm the right to trial by jury or restrict it. Today we will vote to affirm the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution or we will spurn it. Today we will vote to affirm 800 years of history beginning with the Magna Carta or we will relinquish or at the very least diminish a right that Jefferson referred to as the only anchor yet imagined by man which a government can be held to the principles of its Constitution.
A rare 710 yr. old copy of the Magna Carta Libertatum
The right to trial by jury was a check on oppressive government. Opponents of the right to trial by jury will come today and they will argue that the American homeland is now a battlefield and that we must circumscribe our right to trial by jury to be safe from terrorists. But if we give up our rights, have not the terrorists won? If we let fear relinquish our rights, if we relinquish our rights because of fear, what is it exactly then we’re fighting for?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, co-author of the amendment, brought up her memory of seeing Japanese Americans jailed in horse stalls at a racetrack when she was a girl.
The federal government experimented with indefinite detention of U.S. citizens during World War II, a mistake we now recognize as a betrayal of our core values…let’s not repeat it.
The amendment is backed by Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).
At the end of the debate last night, Sen. McCain stated he hoped to limit debate on the detainee amendment tomorrow morning (now today) and bring it to a vote. See above for Senate contact info.
Other thoughtful Senators, like Mike Lee, also spoke in favor of these fundamental rights.
Really sad how few congressmen have a sense of historical perspective. Your goofy “war on terror” (fill in the blank with propaganda: poverty, drugs, women…both left and right do it) doesn’t cancel out 800+ years of law! For those of you willing to call your senator, you better do it early in the morning…