Dianne Feinstein: “I think Senator Kyl has stated it very well. Not only do I find that to be a correct distinction--it is not only Senator…”

“I think Senator Kyl has stated it very well. Not only do I find that to be a correct distinction--it is not only Senator Kyl and I--it is legal scholars who we have worked with and trusted throughout this process. Let me quote the professor from Harvard with whom we worked, Larry Tribe. These are the very kinds of rights with which our Constitution is typically and properly concerned, rights of individuals to participate in all those government processes that strongly affect their lives. Congress and the states have already provided a variety of measures to protect the rights of victims. Senator Kyl and I have heard that said on this floor and outside of this floor. That certainly is true. Yet, as Professor Tribe goes on, the reports from the field are that they have all too often been affected. Rules to assist victims frequently fail to provide meaningful protection whenever they come into conflict with bureaucratic habit, traditional indifference, sheer inertia, or the mere mention of an accused's rights, even when those rights are not genuinely threatened. I read the chronology of the Oklahoma City bombing case and the rights that those victims were afforded by two statutes, not one statute. We couldn't get it done right in 1990. We tried again 7 years later. Both of those were effectively declared a nullity by the Tenth Circuit because the victims had no standing under article III of the Constitution.”