Cord Byrd: “I salute them, admire them, and respect them. Mr. President, if I may add just this: we should learn a lesson by this…”

“I salute them, admire them, and respect them. Mr. President, if I may add just this: we should learn a lesson by this experience. We have a duty as Members of the Senate to support and defend the Constitution. Some of us read it differently, understand it according to our own lights differently, perhaps. We should understand that it is up to us to fight to preserve that Constitution, to protect it, to support it, to defend it. We should not pass off to the Supreme Court of the United States the duty that is ours as elected representatives of the people in this country--a duty which is ours, to study the Constitution, to study its history, the constitutional history of America, study the history of American constitutionalism, to study the history of England, to study the history of the ancient Romans, to study the colonial experience, to reflect upon the church covenants, to reflect upon the Bible and its teachings of that federation, the twelve tribes of Israel.”