Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I think it is important to listen to what you heard and analyze what you heard because apparently, if you are defined as an enemy combatant, it would be OK not to have a trial and not to have a lawyer. You wouldn't be presumed innocent; you would be presumed guilty. But the question you have to ask is, Who gets to define the enemy combatant? If the government gets to define you as an enemy combatant, is it not conceivable that you could be an enemy combatant because you are a minority either of skin color or of ideology? Has it happened in the past? The Japanese citizens were a minority, but there was no evidence--no one presented any evidence that they were a threat or had done anything wrong. The Non-Detention Act attempted to fix this. There were people like this back in the time of World War II. There are people like this in every war, people who are frightened of those who would attack us, so they want to give up the Constitution to make it simpler to get to guilt. You don't have to have a trial; you just proclaim people guilty. If you proclaim someone an enemy combatant, there will be no trial, but it begs the question: Who gets to decide? Are we going to let one person decide, or are we going to have a jury? Imagine how important this is to our country. We should be alarmed that there are people trying to prevent a trial by jury in our country. It hasn't been used so far, thankfully.…”