On the recordOctober 27, 2015
the debate which we will engage in today on the floor of the Senate is really one that parallels the historic debates that have occurred in the course of our Nation's history. When a great democracy sets out to defend its citizens and to engage in security, it really is with a challenge: Can we keep our Nation safe and still protect our rights and liberties? That question has been raised, and that challenge has been raised time and again. It was President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War who suspended the right of habeas corpus. It was challenged by some as an overextension by the executive branch, but President Lincoln thought it was necessary to resolve the Civil War in favor of the Union. In World War I, the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts raised questions about the loyalty of Americans who question many of the great issues that were being raised during that war. We certainly all remember what happened during World War II when, even under President Franklin Roosevelt, thousands of Japanese Americans were interned because of our concerns about safety and security in the United States. It continued in the Cold War with the McCarthy hearings and accusations that certain members of the State Department and other officials were, in fact, Communist sympathizers. That history goes on and on. So whenever we engage in a question of the security and safety for our Nation, we are always going to be faced with that challenge. Are we going too far?…
