Jon Kyl: “another point Senator Feinstein made yesterday which people need to continue to focus on is that a Federal statute is…”

“another point Senator Feinstein made yesterday which people need to continue to focus on is that a Federal statute is going to apply to Federal crimes. A U.S. constitutional amendment applies to all cases in all courts in every State, whether at the trial court level in the county--we call it superior court in Arizona--all the way to any other court, including Federal courts. But a statute that we pass applies to Federal court trials for the most serious crimes. In Federal law, that accounts for about 1 percent of the victims of violent crime in the entire country. Almost always the local police catch the perpetrator, that perpetrator is tried by the local county prosecutor in the county courts, and the appeals go up through the State court process. Sometimes they can jump over to the Federal court because of a constitutional issue involved. But except on military reservations, Indian reservations, certain kinds of kidnapping cases, and things of that sort where it is not a Federal case, a Federal statute doesn't apply.”