In the Military Commission Act of 2009, we prohibited American citizens from being tried by military commissions. I am OK with that. But what we have not done--and I would be very upset if we chose to do that--is take off the table the…

I say to my good friend from California, you are a patriot. You are here for all of the right reasons. We just have a strong disagreement about where we stand as a nation. Nobody interrupted the Christmas Day Bomber plot. The people on the…

Yes. Mr. McCAIN. Yet in the Supreme Court decision reference is made to an individual who was captured during World War II in the United States of America; isn't that correct? It was referenced in the Supreme Court decision.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to end what I think has been a very good debate. Senator Feinstein--and I know she is busy--said something on the floor that I wish to reiterate: that the second amendment which Senator…

How much time do we have remaining? The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 4\1/2\ minutes remaining.

To Senator Feinstein, I do believe the second provision is where we want to be, at least from my point of view. To my colleagues, I never intended by 1031 to change the law imposing a greater burden on American citizens or more exposure to…

How much time do we have? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Eight minutes. You were allotted 3 minutes.

I would say why I wanted to do that. I want to be able to say--and not to my political advantage. But I want to be able to tell people post-Abu Ghraib, post-early Guantanamo Bay, we have cleaned up our act. We are trying to get the balance…

In this case where somebody is worried about being picked up by a rogue executive branch because they went to the wrong political rally, they don't have to worry very long, because our Federal courts have the right and the obligation to…

May I add something. I want to respond to one of my good friends, Senator Paul, who said, Well, that is all good, but sometimes in democracies you let in very bad people and I don't want to give broad power to the executive branch that…

One of the things you learn in military law school is the Posse Comitatus Act, because if a military member or a unit is asked to assist in a law enforcement function, that is prohibited in this country. Why is that? We don't want to…

No one is going to be put in jail because they disagree with Lindsey Graham or Barack Obama. We are trying to fight a war. I would say something even more basic. It is in my political interest, quite frankly, being from South Carolina--a…

Right. Well, let's keep talking about it because the more we talk about it the more interesting the whole concept becomes. The last time I looked, there were no civilian jails overseas. So when we capture a terrorist overseas, the only…

Well, my belief is that most Americans would want our military being able to combat al-Qaida at home as much as they would abroad. I think most Americans would be very upset to hear that the military has no real role in combatting al-Qaida…

Wouldn't it be kind of hard to explain to our constituents that our top lawyers in the Pentagon and CIA said today that once an American citizen decides to help al-Qaida they can be killed in a drone attack, but the Congress somehow says…

So in a situation where an American citizen goes to Pakistan and gets radicalized in a madrasah, gets on a plane and flies back to Dulles Airport, gets off the plane and takes up arms against his fellow citizens, then goes to the mall and…

Our military has said they do not want that authority. They want to deal with enemy combatants when it comes to military commission trials. But our military CI and FBI have all understood their power to detain for intelligence-gathering…

And executed. The Senator from Michigan and I have said, along with our colleagues, that military commissions cannot be used to try American citizens.