Political Quotes

“I rise to praise the Constitution, but also appropriately perhaps in this setting, the Senate's foremost expositor and defender of that document, the Honorable Robert C. Byrd, who has today helped write a page in the history of liberty. In 1995, led by Senator Byrd, Senator Levin, Senator Hatfield and others, we pleaded with the Senate not to do this, not to enact this legislation. We said it is unconstitutional. That is a large statement. We did not say it was unwise or unseasonal. We said it was unconstitutional. We take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and domestic enemies can arise from ignorance, well-intentioned ignorance. This surely was the case, because the bill passed 69 to 31. It passed in the face of the clearest injunction from George Washington in 1793 who said, I must sign a bill in toto or veto it. Senator Byrd, along with the Senator from New York and Senators Levin and Hatfield, chose, with two Members of the House, to sue the Government of the United States declaring this act to be unconstitutional.”