Jeff Sessions

Mr. Kris, do you believe that Congress should correct this anomaly?

Mr. Kris, if Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, for example, began to have doubts about the heavenly reward...

Mr. Kris, the courts' interpretation of the MCA makes it harder to pursue a capital case...

In the Federal civilian system, as well as in the vast majority of the States which currently have capital punishment, the death penalty can be imposed after a guilty plea.

As the President has stated, the United States is a nation of laws and we must abide by court rulings.

I think the President said it best when he said that we need to be using all instruments of national power against this adversary, and that includes military commissions.

I believe that if they are harassed or discriminated against unfairly, we probably have the laws--I believe we have the laws to fix it.

We are a Nation of laws and not of men. That's a fundamental principle of this Republic.

Well, isn't that contrary to the American heritage of law?

That's the kind of thing we get into when you have such a broad problem.

But you suggest, or I believe you state in your testimony that this bill is so vaguely worded that all rape cases could be covered by this statute, making a monumental change in Federal law.

A lot of the cases they cite, isn't it a fact that the defendants were convicted, some given the death penalty, some given life without parole, and they're cited in a way that suggests that somehow justice didn't get done in those cases?

Why don't we make all crimes Federal crimes then?

I would just note that perhaps the authorization of funding to create tasks forces and studies of these kind of crimes would be an appropriate role for the Federal Government.

I believe deeply in the Federal legal system, that we need to get it right.

I think it is overly broad. I'm pretty confident of that.

I would just say that Senator Hatch doesn't agree, and neither does the Civil Rights Commission of the United States, who opposes this legislation.

The kind of crime we had at the Holocaust Museum is just heartbreaking and unacceptable.

The elderly are not a protected group, security guards are not a protected group, soldiers are apparently not a protected group.

So it wouldn't be the words, but it would be the actual sexual orientation, or gender, or race of the person that would make the decision?

I think you are incorrect in referring to Senator Hatch's question about the need to prove animus or ill will.

I am sorry that a number of our members will not be able to be here today because of the health care matter.

It is a big deal, because the Second Amendment will be eviscerated if it is not considered to be a fundamental right and made applicable to the States.

Actually, they have not.

One is political and one has to do with life and death. They are different, in my opinion.