Rand Paul Fights Senate Bill That Would Allow The Military to Arrest Civilians on American Soil and Detain Them Indefinitely!

The Hill reports:

Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and John McCain (Ariz.) battled on the Senate floor Tuesday over a proposed amendment to the pending defense authorization bill that could allow American citizens who are suspected of terrorism to be denied a civilian trial.

Paul argued the amendment, which is cosponsored by McCain, "puts every single American citizen at risk" and suggested that if the amendment passes, "the terrorists have won."

“Should we err today and remove some of the most important checks on state power in the name of fighting terrorism, well then the terrorists have won," Paul argued, "[D]etaining American citizens without a court trial is not American."

McCain, however, who has spent hours of floor time in the last weeks promoting his amendment, hurried to the floor to defend it against Paul's onslaught.

Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Here's what Judge Andrew Napolitano has to say about this amendment on his Fox News program, Freedom Watch:

Reason Magazine has a video of John McCain dodging Rand Paul's very direct question about his amendment:

Tennessee Campaign for Liberty reports:

Senator Rand Paul has submitted an Amendment to Senate Bill 1867 (known as the National Defense Authorization Act) which would strike the section of the bill that allows the US government to indefinitely detain individuals without trial or due process. The Amendment is #1062 and would eliminate Section 1031 which states:

"Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force...includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons...Detention under the law of war without trial"

This Amendment to strike Section 1031 was submitted by Senator Paul as soon as the bill came forward. There are other similar Amendments too, however none of them completely eliminate the Constitutionally offensive section.

Here's Rand Paul's address on the indefinite military detention amendment and the threat it poses to our republic.

This is what true statesmanship looks like:

I am reminded of an article I wrote this summer as Rand Paul courageously fought the renewal of the illegal Patriot Act.

Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
Articles | Author's Page

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