Tina Smith: “this is a most difficult issue we are engaged in. We are arguing about what I believe is a cornerstone principle of the…”

“this is a most difficult issue we are engaged in. We are arguing about what I believe is a cornerstone principle of the rule of law, and that is the issue of habeas corpus. I know this is an unusual war, and I don't know its duration. No one fully does. But I do know if we are going to be true to our Constitution and to the rule of law, we have to be true to that law. I have traveled as a Senator all over this globe and have spoken with great pride about our rule of law and the superiority of democracy to other means of government. While I support this bill in providing due process for these detainees, I rise because I am concerned about the provisions relating to habeas corpus. I am reminded of the words of Thomas Jefferson who once said: The habeas corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume. On another occasion he said: I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. What we are talking about is section 7 of this bill, which will further strip the Federal courts of jurisdiction to hear pending Gitmo cases as it applies to all pending and future cases. Had this proposal been law earlier this year, the Supreme Court may not have had jurisdiction to hear the Hamdan case, which is what brings us here today.”