Arlen Specter: “I thank the Chair. But I am not prepared, at this stage, to support legislation which calls for removal of habeas…”

“I thank the Chair. But I am not prepared, at this stage, to support legislation which calls for removal of habeas corpus. The issues on detainees and military commissions have been pending since 9/ 11 of 2001. Until the Judiciary Committee held a hearing in June 15 of 2005, nothing had been done by Congress. The Supreme Court finally took the bull by the horns and came down with the three decisions in June of 2004 because the Congress had not acted. It didn't know what to do. It didn't know quite how to approach it. And perhaps it was too hot to handle. But the Congress frequently is inactive in the face of assertions by the executive of the need to defer to Presidential power. But I believe that the habeas corpus provisions which are now in effect need to be maintained. While the three decisions by the Supreme Court in June of 2004 did not answer the problem, they did get us started. Their movement in the Hamdan case is again significant. My own thinking, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is to try to find answers to these complex issues. When the Senator from South Carolina decries the numerous habeas corpus appeals, I know what that means. I was a district attorney of a big city, 30,000 cases a year, with a lot of convictions and a lot of habeas corpus matters. The Federal Government can handle the habeas corpus provision. But I read in the revised statute that there are going to be appeals. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.”