Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Benjamin Franklin warned us that those who would trade liberty for security might wind up with neither, but somewhere along the way, we lost our courage. It takes courage to defend the Constitution. It takes courage to defend the Fourth Amendment. It takes courage to understand that, even when people are guilty of crimes, we let them have lawyers. We have open courts. We have an adversarial process. People think: Well, gosh, a murderer gets a lawyer. Yes, everybody in our system gets a lawyer, at least under the system of the Fourth Amendment. But as we became fearful of terrorists, we said: Well, we can't exist under the Constitution. We have to lower the standard of the Fourth Amendment. So in 1978, we set up FISA, and it went after foreigners under a different standard. It was probable cause, not of a crime but probable cause that you are associated with a foreign government. And for even myself, I am fine with that for foreigners. But for Americans, we still have the Constitution. So my amendment would simply say this: You can investigate all the foreigners you want under 702, under FISA, whatever you wish for foreigners, but for Americans you go to an article III court. They work. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.”